By Howard Fischer | Arizona Capitol Times
Key Points:
- Arizona added nearly 100,000 residents in past year
- Mesa closing in on Tucson as second largest city
- Some freeway projects prompted by population growth
It probably comes as no surprise, but once again the fastest-growing communities in Arizona are on the far outskirts of the state’s two major metropolitan areas.
Yes, it is true that of the more than 97,000 people who decided to make Arizona their home in the year ending July 1, nearly one in eight landed in Phoenix.
That brought the city’s population to over 1.7 million according to new estimates by the Arizona Commerce Authority.
But it represented a year-over-year growth rate of less than 0.7% — much slower than the 1.3% average for the entire state.
By contrast, the 3,291 people moving into Apache Junction approached an 8% annual increase. And that was trailed — but only slightly — by Queen Creek at close to 7.7%.
At the other extreme of the Phoenix area, Maricopa grew by nearly 6.7%.
Some other Pinal County communities also beat the state’s growth rate, including Coolidge at 5.7%, Casa Grande at 5.3%, Florence up nearly 3.7% and Eloy growing by 2.8%
