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The new Census estimates are out for 2015 and here are some highlights:
Wake County grew by the largest absolute number of any county in NC by adding 2.49% or 24,927 people from 2014-2015. Its 1,024,198 now trails Mecklengburg by less than 10,000.
Durham County grew by the 3rd largest absolute number in the state by adding 5,629 people from 2014-2015 (1.91%). It crosses the 300,000 mark at 300,952.
Johnston County grew 2.6% by adding 4,701. It's now 185,660.
Chatham County grew 3.38% by adding 2,319 (probably mostly Cary). It's now 70,928.
Orange County grew by the slowest rate of this group at 0.85% or 1,194 to 141,354.
There's also MSA news and movement to report:
The Raleigh-Cary MSA jumped two spots in the rankings between 2014 and 2015. It passed both New Orleans and Richmond to land at #44. The MSA is estimated at 1,273,507 by adding 30,533 people (most of it Wake). It's now less than 5,000 from #43 (Louisville) and will almost certainly pass 1.3 million in the next Census estimate next year.
The Durham-Chapel Hill MSA added 9,276 people to jump two spots to #98 by passing Youngstown and Chattanooga to land at 552,493. Durham-Chapel Hill will almost certainly pass Scranton-Wilkes Barre next year.
What was the rationale to not include Durham and Chapel Hill into the MSA? And what rank what it be if it were?
The answer to your first question has to do with commuting patterns and the stand-alone culture of Durham. Many Durham residents don't need Wake for anything. Many commute into Wake, but I think the magic number is 25% of the workforce must commute in. Much of RTP is in Durham county which means that many Wake residents are commuting into Durham (probably fewer than 25% of Wake's workforce). A similar dynamic is why DC and Baltimore share a CSA, but are in two different MSAs. Greensboro and Winston-Salem are in this situation too. I can't remember the exact numbers, but I think 25% commuting is needed for MSA and 15% is needed for CSA (feel free to correct me on this because I'm not certain).
As for your second question, Raleigh/Durham's combined MSA would rank # 36 nationally between San Jose and Nashville. Raleigh/Durham's MSA would have a population of nearly 1.85 million as of 2015. Do not get this confused with the Triangle's 2015 CSA population though. The 2015 CSA population is around 2.1 million (ranked #29 among US CSAs).
Last edited by urbancharlotte; 03-24-2016 at 09:41 PM..
The answer to your first question has to do with commuting patterns and the stand-alone culture of Durham. Many Durham residents don't need Wake for anything.
I hope Raleigh, Durham & CLT keep growing like crazy so we can gain more and more representation that reflect our values
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