Frisco population growth ranks 15th in state, says U.S. Census Bureau data

As Dallas-Fort Worth development continues its path north, Frisco is seeing its fair share of growth, ranking 15th in Texas for population increase, with more than 8,500 new residents moving there last year, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data.

The city’s population for 2022 is 219,587, up from 211,081 in 2021, showing a 4% growth rate, the data shows.

Frisco’s 2022 development report tells a different story, showing the population at 225,060, up from 214,142 in 2021, a 5.1% increase.

The difference in numbers is due to the way the data is gathered, according to John Lettelleir, Frisco’s development services director.

Lettelleir said the Census Bureau uses a “spreading technique” to allocate the numbers, which is a simplistic approach.

For example, if city A has 90% of the population in an area and city B has 10%, and the area grew by 100,000 people, then 90,000 residents would be added to city A and 10,000 to city B even though city B may have grown more, he explained.

“It’s a general approach to how the numbers are distributed,” Lettelleir said. “Our numbers are based on specifics.”

The city’s report zeroes in on the 2022 population to include what type of home residents live in: single family (180,276), urban living apartments (23,427), garden style apartments (18,813) and senior living (1,909).

Race and age in the 2022 report show half of Frisco residents are white, 26% are Asian, 10% have two or more races, 9% are Black, 3.5% other, 0.5% are American Indian/Alaskan and 0.06% are Pacific Islander/Hawaiian. The median age is 37, with demographics showing 5.7% under age 5, 22.9% school age, 62% adults and 9.4% senior.

The report also shows housing burden (those who pay 35% or more of income on housing) at 28.6% for renters, and 17.5% homeowners with a mortgage.

Housing permits issued during 2022 decreased 30% from the previous year, with 1,326 single family permits pulled in 2022, down from 1,894 the prior year.

Apartment units under construction, however, are up from 2021 with 4,239 units in 2022 compared with 3,295 the prior year. Planned apartment units total 7,920 for 2022, up from 6,462 in 2021.

The current buildout population is estimated at 329,000 with 16% of land available for development.

Lettelleir said the city’s growth is as expected, tracking at a medium rate.

“We’re not having the exponential growth like we did 20 years ago. We are evening out now, where it’s around 5%,” he said. “That’s a manageable growth.”

On a higher level, the biggest metro population increase in the nation was the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area, which gained over 170,000 residents last year, according to census data.

Texas grew by more than 470,000 people from July 2021 to July 2022, with Dallas County gaining nearly 13,000 people, or 0.5%. Surrounding counties increased by 3% to 8%.

Census data shows Collin County ranking fourth in the state for growth of new housing, with 16,193 units in 2022, following Harris (32,964), Travis (27,927) and Tarrant (17,938) counties. Williamson (15,724) and Dallas (14,495) counties rounded out the top five. Denton County ranked No. 10 with 14,050 new housing units.