Austin has edged back in front of Fort Worth in Texas’ population rankings, reclaiming its spot as the state’s fourth-biggest city after new estimates put the capital at 1,054,007 residents on Jan. 1, 2025. The margin is slim, but enough to nudge Austin back ahead as city planners and local leaders watch to see how the fresh numbers might filter into regional planning and marketing pitches.
The reversal comes out of the Texas Demographic Center’s final “Vintage 2024” population estimates, summarized in local reporting by the Austin American-Statesman. Those figures are based on place-level tables that list city-by-city counts as of Jan. 1, 2025.
Numbers and rankings
According to data from the Texas Demographic Center, Texas’ top five cities as of Jan. 1, 2025 were Houston with 2,383,293 residents, San Antonio with 1,554,626, Dallas with 1,338,750, Austin with 1,054,007, and Fort Worth with 1,020,987. The place-level tables carrying those tallies are the final Vintage 2024 estimates the TDC posted this month.
How Austin climbed back
Fort Worth had briefly slipped ahead of Austin in the Jan. 1, 2024 estimates, a shuffle that drew plenty of headlines last winter. That earlier flip appeared in preliminary TDC tables and was highlighted in coverage by outlets such as the Houston Chronicle, which pointed to Fort Worth’s gains at the time.
Growth trends and local impacts
From 2020 to 2025, the TDC figures show Austin growing by roughly 9.6 percent while Fort Worth grew about 11.1 percent. In other words, Fort Worth’s growth rate topped Austin’s, but not by enough to overtake the capital’s larger base population, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman. The split highlights how different starting sizes, suburban spillover and where new development actually lands can reshuffle city rankings even as both metros add residents.
For those who want to dig into the spreadsheets, raw tables, and methodology are posted by the Texas Demographic Center. Local reporting and analysis of the latest population shuffle were compiled this week by the Austin American-Statesman.
