HispanicBusiness

Texas had eight of the 15 fastest growing large cities and six of the 15 cities with the largest numeric increases, according to new Census figures released Thursday.

Fort Worth recorded the 12th largest numeric increase between April 1, 2010, and July 1, 2011, adding 16,708 residents for a total of 758,738, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Cowtown retained its ranking as the nation's 16th largest city while Austin edged past San Francisco for the No. 13 spot. Other Texas cities on the Top 20 list are No. 4 Houston, No. 7 San Antonio, No. 9 Dallas and No. 19 El Paso.

Demographer Steve Murdock of Rice University said he wasn't surprised by the continuation of Texas' long growth spurt.

"From 2000 to 2010 we had the largest numeric and largest percentage growth of any state. I would expect this for cities -- if it's true for the whole, it's true for the parts," said Murdock, a former Census Bureau director.

New York City added the most people (69,777) followed by Houston (45,717), San Antonio (32,152), Austin (30,221) and Los Angeles (27,077). Dallas (25,413) was ranked sixth. and El Paso (16,416) was 13th.

Although Texas dominated the list of fastest-growing cities, New Orleans was ranked No. 1, growing by 4.9 percent to 360,740 or 79.2 percent of its pre-Hurricane Katrina population estimate of 455,188.

At No. 2 was Round Rock, which grew by 4.8 percent, topping the 100,000 mark since the 2010 Census. Nearby Austin (3.8 percent) cracked the 800,000 plateau. Plano (3.8 percent), McKinney (3.8 percent), Frisco (3.8 percent), Denton (3.4 percent), McAllen (3 percent) and Carrolton (3 percent) round out the Texas cities among the 15 fastest growers.