Tampa Bay Towns Among America’s Fastest-Growing: Study

BRANDON, FL — A number of Tampa Bay area communities have rebounded well since the Great Recession rocked the economy, including Brandon, Clearwater and Largo. That’s according to the personal-finance website WalletHub whose number crunchers recently took a look at the economic pictures in 515 communities across the country.

“In order to identify the U.S. cities that grew the most rapidly between 2009 and 2015, WalletHub’s analysts compared 515 U.S. cities across 14 key metrics, ranging from ‘population growth rate’ to ‘college-educated population growth’ to ‘unemployment rate decrease,’” said WalletHub’s Diana Popa.

When all was said and done, only one Florida town made the top five; Lehigh Acres at number three. Frisco and League City, both in Texas, earned number one and two rankings, respectively. Jacksonville, North Carolina, came in last place in the ranking with Detroit, Michigan, ranking at 514.

Brandon was the first Tampa Bay area entry in WalletHub’s 2016’s Fastest Growing Cities, coming in at a respectable 16. The community came in fourth overall in metrics related to “sociodemographics,” according to WalletHub. It did, however, only earn 406th-place in metrics related to “jobs and economy.”

Other Tampa Bay area towns included in the ranking are as follows:

• Spring Hill, 99th place
• Largo, 168th place
• St. Petersburg, 210th place
• Tampa, 212th place
• Clearwater, 219th place
• Lakeland, 227th place
• Town ‘N Country, 415th place

To check out the full ranking and learn about the methodology used, visit WalletHub online.

Image via Shutterstock