Fastest-Growing Cities In America: How Alexandria Ranks

ALEXANDRIA, VA—There's no question has been growing over the last few decades in terms of population. But when a new study looked at the growth of cities across the U.S. using a wider variety of growth factors, Alexandria fell in the mid range of midsize cities.

To determine the 2018 Fastest-Growing Cities, WalletHub ranked the growth of American cities with a different approach: grading cities by "sociodemographics" as well as jobs and the economy. 15 metrics factored into the rankings, with each carrying a different weight to determine a final score out of 100. Some of these metros included population growth, job growth, unemployment rate decrease, increase in number of business and more.

The ranking looked at 515 cities of different population sizes. Rankings were split into large cities (more than 300,000 people), midsize cities (100,000 to 300,000 people) and small cities (less than 100,000 people).

Alexandria ranked 156th among mid-size cities with a score of 43.65. Other Virginia cities were in the mid to low range, including neighboring Arlington at 136. The only Virginia cities to reach the top 100 were Virginia Beach (60th among large cities) and Richmond (83rd among midsize cities).

Here's how Virginia cities fared in the rankings:

Large cities

• 60. Virginia Beach

Midsize cities

• 83. Richmond
• 136. Arlington
• 148. Chesapeake
• 156. Alexandria
• 200. Norfolk
• 223. Newport News
• 224. Hampton

Small cities

• 111. Lynchburg
• 151. Roanoke
• 140. Suffolk
• 180. Portsmouth

According to WalletHub, these are the five fastest-growing cities in America:

• Fort Myers, FL
• Midland, TX
• Pearland, TX
• Bend, OR
• McKinney TX

These are the five slowest-growing cities, according to the study:

• Youngstown, OH
• Lawton, OK
• Erie, PA
• Shreveport, LA
• Decatur, IL

See the full list of rankings here.

Image via K. Summerer/Visit Alexandria