You’re probably not surprised to read that 15 years from now the population of the Dallas area is projected to be significantly larger than it is now, with Hispanics accounting for a significantly greater share. The Urban Institute today has released a new interactive map that allows you to see just how significant that growth will be as compared to the rest of the country and to better understand the underlying factors of population change: birth rate, death rate, and migration.
According to their numbers (which are based on historical trends), the Dallas “commuting zone” population will have grown 35.51 percent between 2010 and 2030, adding nearly 1.5 million people. This zone runs from Cooke County up by the Red River to the counties just to the south and east of Dallas. The total population of that area will be 5,714,576.
And that number doesn’t include Fort Worth, which in their reckoning heads its own “commuting zone.” (So much for Mike Rawlings’ “great city called DFW.”) Cowtown’s fiefdom (from Montague County up by Oklahoma down to counties just to the west and south of Tarrant) will have grown merely 27.98 percent during the same period, to reach a population of 2,887,562.
Both growth rates are on the high end of American cities, though neither tops 40 percent as places like Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Austin are projected to do. You can play with the map’s tools to see how the racial makeup (many more Hispanics) and age grouping (a somewhat older population) will break down in the future.
