Every time you’re stuck in rush hour traffic on I-35, we’re sure you remember that Austin’s population grew beyond 2 million earlier this year. Well, get ready Austin, because according to a recent study conducted by American City Business Journals — the parent company of our very own Austin Business Journal — things are about to get even more crowded in the Texas capital.
Their population projections for the next 10 years show that the number of Austin residents will basically double in the next 25 years, reaching roughly 4 million by 2040. That’s an increase of 98.5 percent, folks, and thinking about our current infrastructure, as well as our constant struggles with gentrification and over-development, we’re sure we’re not the only ones freaking out a little about that!
Specifically, Austin ranks 33rd in ACBJ’s “metropolitan hierarchy.” If our population does increase according to ACBJ’s projections, we’ll move up to 21st. Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas-Forth Worth are also expected to experience marked growth by 2040 — 66.7%, 57.3%, and 53.5%, respectively.
“Projecting population trends is as much an art as a science — and often an inexact art at that, but it nonetheless offers an interesting, useful and provocative view of the future,” wrote ACBJ. “No one can foresee all of the economic twists and demographic turns that the coming 25 years will bring, but ACBJ’s projections suggest a range of intriguing possibilities.”
ACBJ calculated the results with raw data pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau and the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. To find out the specifics of the study, including , head over to ACBJ’s website to their population projections database and methodology breakdown.
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Featured photo: Flickr user Stuart Seeger, CC licensed
