By Robrt L. Pela | Phoenix New Times
If Phoenix were a high school student instead of the country’s fifth-largest city, it would be that straight-A’s smart kid whose locker keeps getting egged.
Depending on what you read, our town either looks great on paper, or it falls short in the popularity department. Phoenix is, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, tops in population growth, having added 32,113 people last year — more than any other U.S. city did in 2016. Our new numbers — more than 1.6 million people in metropolitan Phoenix — means we’ve just regained our ranking as the fifth-largest city in America, yanking that title back from Philadelphia, which bumped us down to sixth a couple years ago with a new head count of 1.57 million.
But apparently a crowd isn’t enough. Several recently published lists of “best cities” don’t include Phoenix among the most favored places to live. Or even to visit.
