Columbia top 20 fastest growing CSA (Charleston, Greenville: 2010, to live in, vs.)

[sandlapper]

Saw this posted on another thread on this website. I haven't been able to find much about it can anyone verify that Columbia's CSA was the 14th fastest growing from 2000-2007?

Thanks,

The lapper

[waccamatt]

I saw a chart of fastest growing MSA's from 2000-2006 and Charleston was 68th, Columbia was 81st and Greenville was 119th. The highest percentage growth in SC was MB at 24th.

http://www.geomidpoint.com/population/metros-2006.html

[motonenterprises]

Was this based on percentages or real numbers? I don't really believe Greenville is growing slower than Columbia with all that Greenville has and it being by far the most populated county.

[motonenterprises]

I went to the link and my question was answered. This is based on percentages which are deceiving at best. Columbia's real numbers are 58,000+ vs 75,000+ for the Greenville area in the same period. Thats how MB was called the fastest growing MSA in 2000 when in reality you look at the real numbers it wasn't. Until next time peace!

[waccamatt]

Originally Posted by motonenterprises

I went to the link and my question was answered. This is based on percentages which are deceiving at best. Columbia's real numbers are 58,000+ vs 75,000+ for the Greenville area in the same period. Thats how MB was called the fastest growing MSA in 2000 when in reality you look at the real numbers it wasn't. Until next time peace!

If you would bother reading my post it said percentages.

Greenville may be the most populous county, but the other 2 counties in their metro - Pickens and Laurens - are barely growing at all.

[motonenterprises]

Originally Posted by waccamatt

If you would bother reading my post it said percentages.

Greenville may be the most populous county, but the other 2 counties in their metro - Pickens and Laurens - are barely growing at all.

So what? Most of the growth is in Greenville and not spread all over the place. Thats even better! Why would Laurens grow when everything is in Greenville County? Greenville is a highly desireable area to live in right now. I love it!

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by motonenterprises

I went to the link and my question was answered. This is based on percentages which are deceiving at best. Columbia's real numbers are 58,000+ vs 75,000+ for the Greenville area in the same period. Thats how MB was called the fastest growing MSA in 2000 when in reality you look at the real numbers it wasn't. Until next time peace!

These are CSA figures here, not MSA figures--which means that it's Greenville + Spartanburg + Anderson and Columbia + Newberry and Myrtle Beach + Georgetown.

Percentages aren't "deceiving." They tell a significant part of the story just like raw numbers do. We usually tend to criticize percentages only when they don't line up with the figures we'd prefer to see. So yes, Myrtle Beach is indeed the fastest-growing metro area in the state (at least for now), as "fastest-growing" refers to percentage of growth. Even if you look at the raw numbers for Myrtle Beach, that's pretty impressive for a metro its size: from 2000-2007, the CSA added 56K people for a growth rate of 22.1%. Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson added 90K for an 8% growth rate and Columbia-Newberry added 68K to give it a growth rate of 10%. Here's the source for these numbers. Myrtle Beach clearly has more pull relative to its size than other metros in the state.

As it regards this list, a list of purely CSAs is a bit deceiving, since not all MSAs have CSAs; Charleston is an example. And Charleston's MSA grew at a rate of 14.4% from 2000-2007, adding 79K people.

[motonenterprises]

Originally Posted by Akhenaton06

These are CSA figures here, not MSA figures--which means that it's Greenville + Spartanburg + Anderson and Columbia + Newberry and Myrtle Beach + Georgetown.

Percentages aren't "deceiving." They tell a significant part of the story just like raw numbers do. We usually tend to criticize percentages only when they don't line up with the figures we'd prefer to see. So yes, Myrtle Beach is indeed the fastest-growing metro area in the state (at least for now), as "fastest-growing" refers to percentage of growth. Even if you look at the raw numbers for Myrtle Beach, that's pretty impressive for a metro its size: from 2000-2007, the CSA added 56K people for a growth rate of 22.1%. Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson added 90K for an 8% growth rate and Columbia-Newberry added 68K to give it a growth rate of 10%. Here's the source for these numbers. Myrtle Beach clearly has more pull relative to its size than other metros in the state.

As it regards this list, a list of purely CSAs is a bit deceiving, since not all MSAs have CSAs; Charleston is an example. And Charleston's MSA grew at a rate of 14.4% from 2000-2007, adding 79K people.

Raw numbers tell a bigger picture than your percentages. If the trend stays this way the smaller metros will never catch up. You can't outgrow a place if your raw numbers are lower than theirs. You can split it up however you want, it want change anything. By 2010 Greenville won't have this problem with msa vs csa because the original msa of GSA will be back in place. Looking at it your way if a town of 100 people gained 50 people its percentage is by far the highest in the state, but it will never come close to catching up to the larger towns and cities that outgained them by numbers but not percentage. So if a metro gains 75,000 vs. a smaller metros 50,000 how will they ever catch up at this rate even if they have a higher percentage? I'm no math major, but I'm sure they wouldn't if the trends continued.

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by motonenterprises

Raw numbers tell a bigger picture than your percentages. If the trend stays this way the smaller metros will never catch up. You can't outgrow a place if your raw numbers are lower than theirs. You can split it up however you want, it want change anything. By 2010 Greenville won't have this problem with msa vs csa because the original msa of GSA will be back in place. Looking at it your way if a town of 100 people gained 50 people its percentage is by far the highest in the state, but it will never come close to catching up to the larger towns and cities that outgained them by numbers but not percentage. So if a metro gains 75,000 vs. a smaller metros 50,000 how will they ever catch up at this rate even if they have a higher percentage? I'm no math major, but I'm sure they wouldn't if the trends continued.

First of all, these are not MY percentages. You act like I just pulled those numbers out of thin air, LOL. If the trend continues according to rate of growth, then yes, Myrtle Beach WILL catch up. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that if one place continues to grow by 22% and one grows at a rate of 8% or 10% that the former place will catch up. The question, though, is will those rates continue? We don't know; they can accelerate or deccelerate. Again, it remains to be seen. I will say though that if you look at the yearly growth rates between 2000-2007, Myrtle Beach, and probably Charleston, have had the most acceleration in their growth rates. I know that percentage figures don't make Greenville look like the next Atlanta, but for you to poo-poo a commonly used method of assessing growth rates--for the sheer purposes of homerism--makes you look quite silly to be honest. I'll just let your last statement stand: you're no math major.

And there's no guarantee that Greenville, Spartanburg, and Anderson will all be one MSA by the time the next census comes out, so I don't know why you're speaking like that's a known fact. They might, but we simply do not know that.

But if you want to compare apples to apples, MSAs to MSAs, Myrtle Beach's raw numbers in terms of growth compares to the Big Three's quite nicely. From 2000-2007, Myrtle Beach's MSA added 52K people compared with Columbia's 67K, Charleston's 80K, and Greenville's 52K.

No matter how you slice it, Myrtle Beach currently has the state's highest rate of growth. If you dispute that, you've got to take it up with the statisticians, not me. I didn't invent percentages.

[g-man430]

Myrtle Beach however has slowed down a lot more than the other metro areas due to the bad economy so don't expect them to catch up anytime soon. Myrtle Beach no longer has the highest rate of growth. A ton of projects there are on hold. I would say either Columbia or Greenville has the most projects getting built right now. Also, how does Myrtle Beach have the highest rate of growth when Greenville County gained more people last year than they did? Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson is the largest CSA in South Carolina currently. Columbia is the largest MSA in South Carolina currently.