Where are people moving? One of the best indicators for examining what makes a place highly desirable is whether it’s seeing significant population growth. When calculating the Best Places to Live, U.S. News factors in each city’s growth due to net migration, which is part of the larger desirability score.
Places seeing the most growth attract new residents for many reasons, including a hot job market, affordable housing, a desirable location or some other factor. For the 2024-2025 rankings, we used the U.S. Census Bureau’s net migration data from 2021 to 2022, the most recent complete data set at the time of our calculations.
Read on for the 25 cities – out of 150 major U.S. cities – that have grown most over this period.
- Phoenix
- Miami
- Boise, Idaho
- Denver
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Oklahoma City
- Austin, Texas
- Lakeland, Florida
- York, Pennsylvania
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Brownsville, Texas
- Fayetteville, Arkansas
- Tampa, Florida
- Naples, Florida
- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
- Sarasota, Florida
- Orlando, Florida
- Reno, Nevada
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Ocala, Florida
- Tallahassee, Florida
- Daytona Beach, Florida
- Port St. Lucie, Florida
- Killeen, Texas
- Fort Myers, Florida
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Best Places 2024-2025 Rank: 67
Population: 1,609,590
Median Age: 36
Median Home Price: $341,740
Median Household Income: $81,277
Net Migration: 2.83%
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