If you’re sure Los Angeles freeway traffic is growing worse by the minute, you may be right.
Los Angeles population has just added more residents — and thus presumably more freeway drivers — than almost every other city in the nation.
Phoenix was the only city to add more new residents.
Los Angeles added 27,173 residents between July 1, 2015, and June 30 of last year, the second-largest numeric population increase in the country, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.
The increase raised Los Angeles’ population at the beginning of this fiscal year to nearly 3.98 million, maintaining its rank as the nation’s second- most-populous city behind New York, which has 8.5 million residents.
The largest numeric increase was Phoenix, at 32,113, for a total population of 1.6 million, putting it fifth nationally.
Eight of the top 10 fastest-growing municipalities on a percentage basis were in Texas and the Deep South.
“Overall, cities in the South continue to grow at a faster rate than any other U.S region,” said Amel Toukabri, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s population division.
“Since the 2010 Census, the population in large southern cities grew by an average of 9.4 percent,” Toukabri said. “In comparison, cities in the West grew 7.3 percent, while cities in the Northeast and Midwest had much lower growth rates at 1.8 percent and 3 percent respectively.”
Four cities in the West — Bend, Oregon; Buckeye, Arizona; Lehi, Utah; and Meridian, Idaho — were among the top 15 fastest growing. The fastest growth in California was in Irvine, at 4 percent, which was 19th nationally.
–City News Service