Celina leads five Texas cities in Census growth, Fwst data shows
The Census Bureau released fwst new city population data on Thursday, and Celina led the nation’s growth rate among large cities, rising 24.6% from July 2024 to July 2025 to 64,427 residents. The five fastest-growing U.S. cities were all in Texas, with four clustered in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs and one outside Houston.
Celina and the DFW suburbs
Celina, about 35 miles north of downtown Dallas, was the fastest-growing U.S. city with a population over 20,000. It held that title in 2023 as well. The other Texas cities in the top five were Fulshear, which grew 21.0%, Princeton at 18.1%, Melissa at 14.5% and Anna at 10.2%.
None of the five fastest-growing cities had more than 65,000 residents. That put the ranking squarely on smaller cities and exurbs rather than on the state’s largest urban cores. Fulshear, about 30 miles from downtown Houston, was the only one of the five outside the Dallas-Fort Worth region.
Texas growth and housing
Texas has no state-level restrictions capping development, no permitting regimes that take years to navigate, and no zoning codes that effectively wall off new construction to protect existing homeowners. The state also uses Municipal Utility Districts, which let developers finance roads, water and sewers upfront and recoup costs through property taxes.
The contrast with California is sharp in the data. California’s average permit-to-completion timeline for a multifamily project runs at least 22 months longer than Texas’s, helping explain why these Texas cities keep absorbing new residents while growth slows elsewhere.
New York City decline
New York City lost 12,196 residents, the largest numeric population decline of any city in the nation. That drop set the opposite end of the same Census release, with growth concentrated in Texas suburbs and losses showing up most clearly in one of the country’s biggest cities.
For homebuyers and builders, the map in this Census release points to the same places: smaller Texas cities where new housing can still be added quickly. Celina’s 64,427 residents and 24.6% growth show how fast that shift is taking hold.
