What do New Orleans and Denton have in common?

According to the US Census Bureau, New Olreans and Denton are two of the top ten fastest-growing large cities in the United States. New Orleans, which continues to repopulate following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, grew by 13.8% in the year that ended July 1, 2007, making it the fastest-growing large city in the United States. As of a year ago, the Census Bureau estimated the Big Easy's population at 239,124. It is doubtlessly even larger today, but is still nowhere near its 2000 population of 484,674.

Denton was the tenth-fastest-growing large city in the United States. The Census Bureau estimated its one-year growth rate at 4.7%, with a population of 115,506 as of July 1st of last year. The fact that Denton has been growing so rapidly (it crossed the 90,000 threshold in 2000, when I worked and lived there) is not a surprise to me; the fact that Denton is considered a "large city" by the Census Bureau is, on the other hand, a bit of a surprise. And Denton wasn't even the fastest-growing city in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for the year ending July 1, 2007, either: McKinney, next door in Collin County, had a growth rate of eight percent, making it the third-fastest growing large city in the nation.

And here's another interesting tidbit from the Census Bureau:

In terms of sheer numbers, Houston led the nation's cities in numerical increase during the period. Houston added 38,932 residents in the year ended July 1, 2007 to reach 2.2 million.

In spite of that, Houston might not be the nation's fourth-largest city when the 2010 census is taken. The Census Bureau estimates that Houston is currently tied with Phoenix, Arizona at the number four position with 1.6 million inhabitants each.

New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago are still the first, second and third-largest municipalities in the United States, respectively.