Georgetown, Texas has been named the fastest-growing city in the United States for cities with a population above 50,000.
That’s according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday, May 26, showing the city’s population estimate of 75,420 and a growth rate of 10.5 percent.
“As we know, with growth comes a lot of pressures, in terms of keeping up with infrastructure, water, wastewater, our roads, public safety and making sure that we can keep our town the same wonderful place that is drawing people here, and we believe that we can do that, we are working extremely hard to do that,” Mayor Josh Schroeder said. “I want to take a moment to thank all of the people who for many generations have done what it takes to make Georgetown the type of place that people want to move to. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into creating an environment and creating a community that draws people here.”
This isn’t the first time Georgetown has appeared at the top of the list, in fact, Georgetown has been in the top 10 fastest growing cities since 2015. According to the City of Georgetown, this is the second time in the past seven years that Georgetown has been ranked the fastest-growing city in the U.S. In 2020 and 2019, it was the seventh fastest-growing city, and in 2018, Georgetown was the sixth fastest-growing city in the U.S., fifth in 2017, the fastest in 2016, and the second-fastest in 2015.
“We grew over 10% in the last year, and so lots of people recognize the same thing we do that Georgetown’s a wonderful place to live, and we welcome them,” Mayor Schroeder said. “In fact, our new slogan is that they are more than welcome in Georgetown, Texas, and so we look forward to many more years of growth.”
Mayor Schroeder added that the city is continuing to address the pressure points of growth, including public safety, roads and utilities.
“One thing that we’ve tried to talk to people about is growth is inevitable due to the marketplace and the economy, and Texas State law that pretty much prohibits cities from from stopping growth, and so the only question is, do you manage the growth and deal with it, or you just get swallowed up by it,” Mayor Schroeder said. “We are working nonstop to keep up on all of those [pressure points of growth.] We’re adding law enforcement and fire personnel, every single year. We have undertaken a huge road bond project to address traffic issues. We’ve undertaken the largest project in the city’s history, a new water treatment plant, to make sure that we’ve got plenty of clean water for folks, and we’re working on our wastewater as well, just to make sure that we can have enough housing inventory on the ground to hopefully bring down demand and lower the prices in the inflation that we’ve seen in the real estate market.”
Additionally, the mayor said Georgetown is continuing to look at their events and programming as they work to preserve the small-town charm that draws so many to the growing community.
“We’ve got our famous Red Poppy Festival, and other events going on throughout the year,” Mayor Schroeder said. “Taking a big picture look at all of those events and programs to make sure that we are utilizing those to the best of our ability to kind of create that small-town feel, and I think a lot of folks will point to those events as reasons why they feel like they still live in a small town.”
Other cities who ranked as fastest-growing, according to the U.S. Census included Leander, TX at number two, Queen Creek Town, Arizona at number three, Buckeye, Arizona at number four and New Braunfels, TX at number five. You can read the full news release from the U.S. Census Bureau about the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. is at census.gov.
Watch the entire press conference with Mayor Schroeder below:
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