Despite concerns about rampant apartment construction in Scottsdale, the city’s growth is flat, according to new estimates by the Arizona Commerce Authority.
Of the more than 97,000 people who decided to make Arizona their home in the year ending July 1, nearly one out of every eight landed in Phoenix. That brought the city’s population to more than 1.7 million, according to the Arizona Commerce Authority.
It represented a year-over-year growth rate for Phoenix of less than 0.7% — much slower than the 1.3% average for the entire state.
Scottsdale’s population grew just 0.4% last year, bringing it up to 251,000 people.
Among other southeast Valley cities and towns, Gilbert, which a decade ago was among the hottest growth cities, remains the fourth-largest community in the state at 294,689 residents, though its growth rate that has slowed to 0.9%.
Chandler is not far behind at 288,299 residents, with its population increase also lagging the state rate at 0.7%.
It probably comes as no surprise, but once again the fastest-growing communities in Arizona are on the far outskirts of the two major metropolitan areas.
At other extreme of the Phoenix area, Maricopa grew by nearly 6.7%.
Some other Pinal County communities also beat the state’s growth rate, including Coolidge at 5.7%, Casa Grande at 5.3%, Florence up nearly 3.7% and Eloy growing by 2.8%
Also on the top of the growth chart are communities west of Phoenix, with Buckeye checking in at 5.3%, Goodyear at 5%, with a 4.2% annual growth rate in Surprise and 4% in Avondale.
In fact both areas are growing so fast that state lawmakers have set aside millions of dollars to alleviate existing and potential future traffic jams for daily commuters.
That includes widening stretches of Interstate 10 that serve both those areas, one north of Casa Grande and the other adding more lanes to the freeway going out to Buckeye. And an entirely new freeway — State Route 30 — is being planned parallel to I-10 to serve Buckeye, Goodyear and Avondale.
Beyond Phoenix among large cities, Tucson maintained its slot as the second largest, adding 682 people in the past year to bring its population to 557,901.
But Mesa is moving to catch up, with 4,499 new residents. That puts its population within 29,000 of Tucson.
Glendale, however, did better than the state’s 1.3% growth rate, clocking in at 1.8% and boosting its population to more than 265,000. So did Peoria at 1.5%, now with 206,000 residents, and even land-locked Tempe with 196,000 residents after posting a 1.4% year-over-year increase.
Source Scottsdale Independent (abridged)