By Howard Fischer | Pinal Central
Pinal County’s municipalities continue to outpace their much larger counterparts across Arizona as people appear to be moving away from big cities toward more distant suburbs and exurbs.
New figures from the Census Bureau show that the trend is decidedly not in the big cities’ favor as their growth has largely stalled — and, in some cases, is actually declining.
Yes, Phoenix remains the champion with an estimated 1.66 million residents as of last year, the most recent data released. But the Census Bureau said it added just 3,157 new residents in the preceding 12 months, an anemic 0.2% growth.
Tucson fared even worse, with its 548,371 head count actually 2,262 less than the year before. In fact, since the decennial census in 2020, the state’s second largest city added only 5,773 residents.
