Census: New Orleans top growth city in '08

WASHINGTON, July 1 (UPI) -- Data from the U.S. Census lists New Orleans as the fastest growing city in the United States last year.

New Orleans grew 8.2 percent in 2008 to nearly 312,000 people, up from 210,768 in 2006, the year after Hurricane Katrina.

The pre-hurricane population of the Big Easy was around 485,000, based on the 2000 Census.

The Census Bureau said in a report released Wednesday that the growth trend was just as pronounced in Texas, where the Dallas and Austin areas attracted a stream of new residents. The Austin suburb of Round Rock was No. 2 on the list with an 8.16-percent increase in its population. McKinney ranked fifth, Killeen was ninth and Fort Worth came in at No. 10.

In terms of sheer number of people, New York City had the largest growth spurt with some 53,000 new residents. The increase pushed the Big Apple's total population to around 8.4 million, twice the size of second-place Los Angeles, which tallied 3.8 million. Chicago, Houston and Phoenix rounded out the top five largest cities.