Columbia’s rapid growth rate is putting on the brakes , according to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Columbia’s population grew 1.08 percent from 2016 to 2017, the lowest increase the city has seen in the past eight years. From 2010 to 2011 — the next lowest growth year in that period — the city’s population increased by 2.13 percent.
In the 2018 State of the City address, City Manager Mike Matthes called Columbia the fastest growing of the 10 most populous cities in Missouri. Based on the data the Census Bureau released Thursday, that is no longer the case.
While Columbia certainly had the highest growth rate — an increase of 11.6 percent — compared to other large cities from 2010 to 2017, the new data places Columbia as the fifth-fastest-growing city in Missouri from 2016 to 2017.
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