Lone Star State outpaces nation in growth, and one North Texas city leads pack

If you feel like Texas cities are growing at record speed, it’s because they are: the Lone Star State dominates WalletHub’s new rankings of the fastest-growing U.S. cities — from small to large.

A couple of Texas cities in particular came out on top. Mission (near McAllen), which took the No. 1 spot on the overall list and the small-city rankings, and Irving, which landed at No. 2 overall and No. 1 among midsize cities.

It appears that Alamo Drafthouse picked a good spot for its third Dallas-area theater, in Irving’s coming-soon Music Factory complex.

To identify the cities that have “expanded the most rapidly in socio-economic terms” between 2008 and 2013, WalletHub researchers analyzed 516 U.S. cities of varying sizes. Data was divided into two categories: socio-demographic landscape and jobs and economic development.

Within those groups were metrics such as population growth, educational attainment growth (increase in people earning bachelor’s degrees or higher), uninsured rate decrease, median household income growth, and unemployment rate decrease.

WalletHub categorized cities based on the following population sizes: large (more than 300,000), midsize (100,000-300,000) and small (less than 100,000). It ranked the cities within these categories and overall.

Among large cities, Texas had four of the top 10: Austin (No. 1), Fort Worth (No. 2), San Antonio (No. 5) and Corpus Christi (No. 6). Looking beyond the top 10, El Paso landed at No. 13, and Houston came in at No. 17.

Dallas proper fell outside the top 20 on the big-city list, at No. 26. Overall it ranked No. 113.

The Lone Star State stood out in the midsize city rankings, claiming 10 of the top 20 spots: Irving (1), San Angelo (5), Grand Prairie (6), Frisco (9), Killeen (10), Round Rock (11), Odessa (12), Midland (13), College Station (14) and Waco (20). Texas also had six of the top 20 in the small-city rankings: Mission (1), Edinburg (2), Pharr (4), League City (8), Bryan (11) and Allen (13).

Austin also nabbed a spot among the top 10 on the overall list, at No. 8. Speaking of the overall rankings, Texas took 11 of the top 20 spots, and four belong to North Texas: Irving (1), Fort Worth (14), Grand Prairie (17) and Frisco (No. 20).

Irving ranks No. 2 on a new list of fast-growing cities.

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Irving ranks No. 2 on a new list of fast-growing cities.