The Villages, Fla. is the Fastest-Growing Metro in the U.S.

According to new data from the U.S. Census bureau, the nation’s fastest-growing metro area is The Villages, Fla. The area’s population has risen by nearly 38% since 2010, or more than 35,000 new residents in the immense retirement community.

Initially centered on a master-planned community in Sumter County, Fla., The Villages has grown to sprawl across three counties. Rich Doty, a research demographer at the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research, notes that the area’s median age is expected to rise to 67 in 2020, up from 30 in 1970.

Nancy Deichman, a RE/MAX Premier Realty broker, attributes the area’s boom to bad winters in the Northeast or Midwest regions. “I hate to say it, but a bad winter up North helps us,” she says. “We actually have three offices in The Villages … and right now, there’s another 49,000 homes being planned.”

In absolute terms, the Denver/Fort Worth/Arlington, Tex. metro had the largest population boom between 2010 and 2018 at 132,000, most of it from current residents having babies. Texas metros took four out of the top ten spots by this metric.