Twelve of the 15 fastest-growing cities and towns in Indiana with a population of at least 5,000 residents are in the Indianapolis metro area, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau and analyzed by the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
For the seventh consecutive year, Whitestown in Boone County was the state’s fastest-growing locale, with a growth rate of 7.6 percent in 2017. Whitestown’s population has more than doubled in the last seven years, from 3,151 in 2010 to 8,179 in 2017.
Locally, Westfield was the state’s second fastest-growing place in 2017 with an increase of 5.3 percent, followed by McCordsville (4.9 percent growth) in Hancock County and Plainfield (4.6 percent) in Hendricks County.
In terms of numeric change, a trio of Hamilton County communities — Westfield (2,002 increase) Fishers (1,929) and Noblesville (1,667) — round out the state’s top five largest gains in terms of numerical increases.
Carmel remained the state’s fifth-largest city, as the addition of 1,337 new residents in 2017 brought its population total to 92,198. Fishers ranked just behind its neighbor as an uptick of 1,929 residents raised its population to 91,832.
Looking at differences between urban and rural communities, the data show that most Hoosiers live in cities or towns. Two-thirds of Indiana’s 6.67 million residents in 2017 lived in incorporated places. Indiana’s cities and towns as a group accounted for 76 percent of the state’s total population growth in 2017.