Growth rate of Houston suburbs continues to outpace city – Houston Public Media

Houston's suburbs are growing at a faster rate than the city itself.

That's according to the latest report from Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter.

He said as people get older and have children, they tend to leave the city for the suburbs.

"All of the sudden, they don't want to live in an urban area any longer," he said. "They want to move out into a suburban area with a house that has a yard, good schools."

Liberty County saw the highest percentage of new residents with a 20.3% population increase from 2020 to 2024.

While demographics for other Houston-area counties shifted only slightly, Liberty County saw an increase in its Latino population. In 2023, about 42% of residents identified as Hispanic, compared to about 27% in 2018. The median age of Liberty County residents also dropped from 35.3 in 2018 to 32.8 in 2023.

Montgomery, Chambers and Waller counties also led the region in population growth.

Montgomery County grew by 17.4% over the last four years, while Chambers County saw a 16.2% population increase and Waller County grew by 13.4%.

Potter said rural counties have more room to accommodate new growth than more developed suburbs.

"When you look at Liberty and Chambers, they're relatively speaking, undeveloped, compared to Fort Bend and Montgomery," he said.

Fort Bend County continued to grow at a steady pace, seeing a 10.8% population increase over the past four years.

Although Harris County saw the highest number of new residents from 2020 to 2024 in the greater Houston area, its population increased by 2.5% during that time.

Meanwhile, the city of Houston grew by less than 1%.

Potter said Harris County has negative domestic migration, but is continuing to grow due to international migration and births.

"Somehow it's continuing to be one of the most significant-growing counties in the country ... and that's happening at the same time that parts of the county are actually losing population," he said.