According to U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday, Texas has added more new residents than any other state in the country.
The Lone Star State attracted 490,000 residents between July 2014 and July 2015, bringing the total population to 27.5 million people.
“This place sucks you in,” Miles Powell said. “Every friend that has visited at least has chirped about the idea of coming here. Just through work the job applicants that we get it’s not all these people concentrated in Austin, you know, people are looking to move here.”
Powell moved to Austin, Texas last year after spending his entire life living on the east coast.
“I came here actually with a couple of friends just visiting the city,” Powell said. “I heard it was a great place and we actually skipped our flights home because we loved Austin so much.”
The Texas Chamber of Commerce said the recent boom in population is likely due to the state’s business-friendly climate.
“We got a great environment here, and its been proven over and over again because businesses continue to move here,” Chris Wallace, President of the Texas Chamber of Commerce Executives said. “Everything from a predictable civil justice system, to balanced regulatory, to the competitive housing market, even the central time zone, our physical location within the state for easy access.”
In the past five years, thousands of companies have relocated their headquarters to Texas. Wallace said many more companies have already announced plans to do the same this year.
“The business aspect drives the state,” Wallace said. “Sixty-three percent of the state and local taxes combined are made up from business.”
Katherine Pineda said her recent move to Austin was mainly because of a job opportunity.
“The job is what definitely brought me here,” Pineda said, “but I also started looking for jobs in Austin once I started spending some time here visiting friends and liked the city.”
While the sudden influx of people is great for the state’s economy, Wallace said it isn’t great for commuters driving to work in the morning.
“We all complain about traffic, particularly in the major metropolitan areas,” Wallace said. “Traffic is a good problem to have because we have a lot of people that desire to live here, but we have to make sure that we are keeping up with that. We have to make sure that we are keeping up that grow and demand, and that we have the supply of infrastructure that’s necessary to keep up with that demand.”
