Jacksonville MSA Growing at a Faster Rate than United States
According to recently released U.S. Census Reports, in 2018, Jacksonville’s metro population grew 2 percent over the previous year, which made it the 6th fastest growing large metro (at least 1 million residents). During this same time, the U.S. growth rate was 1 percent. Adding nearly 30,700 people, the MSA welcomed approximately 84 new residents per day from 2017 to 2018. Over the same time period, Jacksonville city had the 7th largest increase in residents and was #1 in Florida in terms of growth.
More than half of new residents were from international locations. In fact, in the most recent data from the County-to-County Migration Flows: 2012-2016 American Community Survey, stated the largest area for in-migration to our region was Asia with more than 3,000 residents moving to Duval County over the course of the aforementioned four years.
Domestic in-migration data in the U.S. Census Report as detailed by Florida Politics shows that St. Johns County had the 3rd highest rate of county growth in Florida at 4 percent. By percentage growth, St. Johns and Nassau were the 3rd and 4th overall fastest growing counties at 4.2 percent and 3.6 percent.
In-migration numbers show that 70 percent of the newcomers to the region are under 40 years of age, highlighting that the Jacksonville region is a magnet for talent attraction of young professionals and has a growing workforce pipeline in our K-12 schools.
The population growth for Jacksonville MSA shows there is a healthy increase for residential growth. During 2018, the MSA had a natural increase of people (births over deaths) and net migration (newcomers over people leaving). Since 2010, our MSA grew 189,110 residents to 1.5 million, a percent change of 14.1 percent, the second fastest growth in the state.
Jacksonville is the 12th most populous city in the United States with nearly 904,000 residents.