Tampa, FL – Tampa has been ranked among the nation’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas based on population, employment, earnings and economic activity.
The Tampa metro placed fifth among the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas in a LendingTree study comparing federal data from 2023 and 2024.
Researchers evaluated eight measurements across people and housing, work and earnings, and business and economy.
Tampa received an overall score of 60.3.
Austin led the rankings with 79 points, followed by Raleigh, Seattle and Charlotte.
Phoenix placed sixth, while Jacksonville, Orlando, Houston and Nashville completed the top 10.
Tampa performed best in work and earnings, ranking second nationally with a category score of 77.1.
The region’s workforce expanded 4.4%, while median earnings increased 7.8%.
The annual unemployment rate rose 13.3% during the period studied.
The metro ranked 10th in people and housing.
Tampa’s population grew 2.4%, housing units increased 1.5% and 14.3% of residents had moved from another county, state or country.
Tampa finished eighth in business and economy.
Inflation-adjusted gross domestic product increased 3.3%, while applications for employer identification numbers declined 0.4%.
Those applications are commonly used to track potential new business activity.
Florida placed three metropolitan areas in the top 10.
Jacksonville ranked seventh and Orlando finished eighth, while Miami placed 16th.
Eight of the 10 highest-ranked metros were in the South. Seattle and Phoenix were the exceptions.
Researchers used information from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Each primary category received equal weight in determining the final