Suburban Strength

In 2010/11, US cities grew 1.07% while suburbs grew 0.91%, a difference of 0.16 percentage points. That gap peaked at 0.25 in 2011/12 when cities grew 1.17% and suburbs 0.92%. The growth gap persisted for three more years but narrowed. By 2014/15, cities grew 1.03% while suburbs expanded by 0.95%. Since then suburbs have steadily bested cities and by steadily widening margins. In 2018/19 cities grew 0.31%, suburbs by 0.65%.