JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Economic Development (MDED) released their population estimates for 2015 Tuesday and found that suburban counties and Kansas City have experienced the most growth while rural counties lag behind.
Topping the list of the fastest growing counties since 2010 is Boone County, home of Columbia and the University of Missouri. The population has increased from 162,642 in 2010 to 174,974 in 2015 according to U.S. Census Bureau projections, a 7.2 percent increase.
Columbia Chamber of Commerce president Matt McCormick said that a high quality of life, with parks and trail systems along with a relatively low cost of living and diverse business base, contributed to that growth.
He also noted Columbia ranked as one of the best areas to both retire (due to strong healthcare) and or raise a young family (quality ranked education) and it recently ranked as the best small metro job destinations for college graduates, according to the American Institute for Economic Research.
“We expect to continue seeing it grow,” McCormick said of Columbia and Boone County. “The student enrollment is down a little bit, but we still see our businesses growing and businesses continuing to look here.”
The state has undergone roughly a 1.5 percent increase since 2010, adding just under 88,000 new people in that time span.
Other counties experiencing the most growth included Platte County and Christian County, which had increases of 7.1 percent and seven percent respectively. Platte County includes parts of Kansas City and Christian County includes parts of Springfield and was one of the fastest growing counties in the country from 2000 to 2010.
In terms of sheer numbers, other suburban and urban counties tended to add the most people. St. Charles County added over 23,000 people to its ranks since 2010, and Clay, Green and Jackson Counties all added over 38,000 people combined.
St. Louis County was an exception. The largest county in the state by population only added 4,000 people, an increase of 0.5 percent. However, that was enough to make it the first county with over one million people.
St. Louis City and rural areas experienced population decline. St. Louis City lost over 3,000 people and many rural counties lost hundreds of people despite having just thousands or tens of thousands of residents to begin with.
The full table can be found here.
Updated – 2:20 p.m. May 24, 2016: Comments added from McCormick
