The Fastest-Growing U.S. City Is a Senior Community
Americans over 55 are flocking to the Villages, a sprawling retiree utopia that just keeps growing
Residents watch passers by from a restaurant in The Villages, billed as Florida's Friendliest Retirement Hometown.
Photograph: Tampa Bay Times/ZUMAPRESS.comThis article is for subscribers only.
The latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau are in, and the fastest-growing city in the U.S. is not an oil boomtown or a magnet for new immigrants, but a senior living community outside Orlando, Fla., with a reputation for attracting active retirees.
The Villages, a sprawling senior community of 114,000 residents, increased 5.4 percent in the year ended July 2014, making it the country’s fastest-growing metro for the second straight year. That’s triple the growth rate for the state of Florida and far faster than Myrtle Beach, S.C., the second fastest-growing U.S. city, which expanded 3.2 percent.