Raleigh-Cary Metro grew by 28,000. Wake was around 16,000 with Johnston (9,000) and Franklin (3,000) providing the rest.
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Some cities and towns:
Apex- 2,966
Fuquay-Varina- 2,165
Holly Springs- 1,804
Raleigh- 1,699
Wake Forest- 1,670
Clayton- 1,630
Cary- 1,598
Wendell- 1,586
Morrisville- 1,268
Zebulon- 911
Garner- 629
Rolesville- 478
Knightdale- 83
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I find it very hard to believe the Knightdale number with all the growth I see out there
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Of all of the larger/fast growing Sunbelt MSAs, Raleigh-Cary is among the most geographically constrained. By land area, it’s even smaller than the Durham-Chapel Hill MSA. On the other hand, Charlotte’s MSA is nearing 3X the size of Raleigh-Cary. Charlotte benefits from being the only “dog” in a greater geographical area while the corridor from Raleigh to Winston-Salem is replete with central cities that anchor individual MSAs according to the OMB. I’ve said for a long time that our MSA designation lowers Raleigh’s visibility. We should be compared to Nashville (another giant MSA by land area), but we are instead often compared to metro areas like Richmond and Louisville that are much less populated than the Triangle.
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That’s what I figured regarding the land mass size discrepancy. Seems Raleigh and Durham get coupled together in about any ranking/metric/list/etc. out there except THIS one 
Still interesting data point I saw was NC’s continued overall population growth maintaining it’s current rate. The assumption being the 94k added from 2020 to 2021 is accurate. For argument’s sake assuming it holds steady we’ll see potentially another 900k - 1 million more people move to NC by the 2030 census. Between 2000 - 2010 it grew by 1.486 million and 2010 - 2020 by 903k. That’s not assuming these massive multi-thousand job facilities coming online like VinFast/Toyota bringing in more people than just the announced job headcount totals. It’ll be interesting to see how many people are living in the greater Raleigh metro area by 2030 for sure.
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Check out all of the MSAs here:
I posted this last year as well, and it’s a really good visual that has all of the updated populations.
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I’ll have to take a look at it. Bringing this locally, looks like Wendell and Zebulon were the fastest two growing towns in the whole state over the last year. Grew 16% and 13% respectively last year.
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They need to merge it I have only one article confirming it but it needs to happen.
these two places car centric? is there data showig the commuting trends from wendell and zebulon?
So how do we change it, this is not 2023 but the OMB said that we were supposed to merge. We need to be one metro I’ll attract more jobs. So what next I think the period to demand and out personal comments ended so what’s next?
We got some details on a possible merger of Raleigh-Cary MSA with Durham-Chapel Hills.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/07/16/2021-15159/2020-standards-for-delineating-core-based-statistical-areas
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I know some people have found data like that showing driving from one area to another, but I have no idea where that is. I’m sure something is out there showing that sort of vehicular movement.
Looks like I have my reading for the upcoming long weekend! 
Thank you for the find! 
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I want this merger too happen, this would be so great for our region. Here another article for this weekend. Appendix: In the age of American ‘megaregions,’ we must rethink governance across jurisdictions
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Going back to the Census report linked a few days ago, I decided to count the number of top 50 cities that have grown since the last Census. Of the 50, only 17 (in 10 states) grew. They are in order of population:
Phoenix
San Antonio
Austin
Jacksonville
Ft. Worth
Columbus
Charlotte
Oklahoma City
Las Vegas
Fresno
Tucson
Sacramento
Mesa
Kansas City
Colorado Springs
Raleigh
Bakersfield
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The interior parts of California are benefitting from those leaving the coast.
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Big Hispanic populations, as well. Both in terms of international immigration and generally having more kids.
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I actually think that a sharp reduction in immigration is hurting growth in many US cities. Immigrants tend to go to cities and have done so for most of US history. Immigrants aren’t all migrant workers in the fields.
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No doubt! Just saying the comparatively larger existing populations in those cities specifically do help drive population growth more than in other cities.
Here’s another interest article about the split of the original Raleigh-Durham MSA into the Raleigh-Cary MSA and Durham-Chapel Hill MSA. It’s full of NIMBY propaganda and they knew the effects this move would do to this area and regions growth.
https://townhall.townofchapelhill.org/archives/agendas/ca000925/4f-MSA%20Change-FINAL.htm
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