Growth drives Charlotte demographics

A double rainbow over the uptown Charlotte skyline.

The story of Charlotte's demographics is easy to tell. It's about growth.

Job prospects, climate, living costs – these and other lures have pulled in folks from across the Carolinas and around the nation.

The other top states that send people moving into the Charlotte region, in order: Florida, New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Virginia and California.

Let's start at the heart of the region and look just within the city limits of Charlotte.

Thanks in part to the ease with which North Carolina cities can annex developments, Charlotte is now the 18th-largest U.S. city, with an estimated 2008 population of about 687,500.

Since 2000, Charlotte has passed the cities of Memphis, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Boston and Washington in core city population. Only Fort Worth has passed Charlotte.

Mecklenburg County is the largest in the Carolinas, with about 890,500 within its borders. That ranks 54 in the nation. But in growth, Mecklenburg has a national rank of 12th for annual net migration and 15th in population growth.

Charlotte and Mecklenburg are at the center of a six-county metropolitan area that includes Anson, Cabarrus, Gaston and Union counties in North Carolina and York County, S.C.

Latest estimate for the metro population: 1.7 million. That makes us the 34th-largest U.S. metro in 2008, up from 37th in 2000. The metros that Charlotte surpassed in size: Providence, Indianapolis and Virginia Beach.

The U.S. Census Bureau's latest estimates, from mid-2007 to mid-2008, show the metro adding 55,400 people to its population. That included net migration – people moving in minus people leaving – of 39,000.

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