Types of rapidly growing counties of the U.S., 1970–1990

Abstract

Recent economic growth and in-migration have led to an interesting patchwork of rapidly growing counties in the United States. This paper identifies 299 U.S. counties that were growing at least 70% from 1970 to 1990, a rate greater than one standard deviation above the mean of all counties. Using a k-means cluster algorithm, seven distinct types of rapidly growing counties, with meaningful spatial patterns, were found. Four of these clusters were primarily urban: smaller fast-growing cities in the south, large sunbelt cities, as well as both white and blue-collar suburban counties ringing many of the more dynamic metropolitan regional centers of the country. Also, there were two predominately rural clusters: retirement counties and several counties in the Intermontane West characterized by environmental amenities and isolated growth. Lastly, we observed a distinct cluster of several Hispanic counties in the southwest primarily along the U.S.–Mexico border. We believe these seven clusters present a remarkably clear portrait of the significant forces underlying the rapid growth of counties in the United States.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their appreciation to Anu Day, Susan Macey, Stephanie Shaw, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. Also, we would like to thank Dennis Fitzsimons for his advice on transforming the main map (Fig. 3) from color to black and white.

Notes

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