Just as the Austin City Limits Music Festival has grown from its inaugural year of 2002 to 2015, so too have Austin’s city limits.
In celebration of the ACL Music Festival, which is Oct. 2-4 and Oct. 9-11 this year, we decided to dive into the data and figure out just how much Austin’s city limits have grown during the festival’s 14 years of existence. The growth numbers supplied by Austin’s city demographer, Ryan Robinson, are pretty eye-opening.
From the year of ACL’s birth to this year, the land area of Austin has expanded 17.7 percent, or 48.5 square miles. That square mileage is equivalent to the size of the entire city of Fargo, ND.
Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2014
ACL/Nick Simonite
The land area of Austin now measures 322.5 square miles, making it one of the physically biggest cities in the U.S. Back in 2002, Austin covered 274 square miles.
The expansion of Austin’s city limits is even more impressive from 2000 — two years before ACL launched — to 2015. According to Robinson’s data, the land area of Austin increased by 57 square miles during that period, or 21.7 percent. That jump in square mileage is equivalent to the size of the entire city of Daytona Beach, FL.
Addition by Annexation
“Land area expansions are, of course, the result of annexations, and our overall population growth owes about 35 percent of its growth to annexation,” Robinson says.
Will Austin keep expanding so dramatically by annexation? Maybe not, according to Robinson.
“My sense is that our overall annexation policy and philosophy may be changing. There seems to be a bit more pushback than what there was in the past,” he says.
Here are a few other ways we sliced and diced the historical spread of Austin’s city limits.
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2000 to 2010
Land area in 2000: 265.1 square miles
Land area in 2010: 307.5 square miles
Percentage increase in land area: 16%
Square miles added: 42.4
Addition equivalent to: Entire city of Eugene, OR
1990 to 2015
Land area in 1990: 226.3
Land area in 2015: 322.5
Percentage increase in land area: 42.5%
Square miles added: 96.2
Addition equivalent to: Entire city of Milwaukee, WI
1900 to 2015
Land area in 1900: 16.5
Land area in 2015: 322.5
Percentage increase in land area: 1,855%
Square miles added: 306
Addition equivalent to: Entire city of New York City, NY
Below is a year-by-year and decade-by-decade look at how Austin’s city limits have changed, along with the city’s population and population density. And to celebrate the ACL Music Festival, we’ve included photos of how Austin looked during each year of the fest.
Editor’s note: Population figures were provided by the City of Austin and may differ from figures available from the U.S. Census Bureau.
ACL Era
2015
Land area: 322.5 square miles
Population: 900,701
People per square mile: 2,793
2014
Land area: 318.5 square miles
Population: 878,733
People per square mile: 2,759
2013
Land area: 309.8 square miles
Population: 855,215
People per square mile: 2,485
2012
Land area: 308.1 square miles
Population: 832,326
People per square mile: 2,701
2011
Land area: 307.8 square miles
Population: 812,025
People per square mile: 2,638
2010
Land area: 307.5 square miles
Population: 790,390
People per square mile: 2,570
2009
Land area: 301.8 square miles
Population: 774,037
People per square mile: 2,564
2008
Land area: 299.9 square miles
Population: 750,525
People per square mile: 2,503
2007
Land area: 297.6 square miles
Population: 735,088
People per square mile: 2,470
2006
Land area: 295.7 square miles
Population: 718,912
People per square mile: 2,431
2005
Land area: 294.2 square miles
Population: 700,407
People per square mile: 2,381
2004
Land area: 290.9 square miles
Population: 692,102
People per square mile: 2,379
2003
Land area: 278.6 square miles
Population: 687,708
People per square mile: 2,468
2002
Land area: 274 square miles
Population: 680,899
People per square mile: 2,485
Pre-ACL Era
2000
Land area: 265.1 square miles
Population: 656,562
People per square mile: 2,477
1990
Land area: 226.3 square miles
Population: 465,622
People per square mile: 2,058
1980
Construction of Loop 360
TexasFreeway.com
Land area: 128.9 square miles
Population: 345,890
People per square mile: 2,683
1970
Robert Miller/TexasFreeway.com
Land area: 81.4 square miles
Population: 251,808
People per square mile: 3,094
1960
Land area: 55.8 square miles
Population: 186,545
People per square mile: 3,343
1950
University of North Texas Libraries
Land area: 37.9 square miles
Population: 132,459
People per square mile: 3,498
1940
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Land area: 30.9 square miles
Population: 87,930
People per square mile: 2,850
1930
Land area: 20.4 square miles
Population: 53,120
People per square mile: 2,603
1920
Land area: 16.5 square miles
Population: 34,876
People per square mile: 2,114
1910
Land area: 16.5 square miles
Population: 29,860
People per square mile: 1,810
1900
Land area: 16.5 square miles
Population: 22,258
People per square mile: 1,349
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