Where 90 percent of Houston is moving

The Houston area grew by 137,458 people, or 2.23 percent, between 2012 and 2013, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau and mapped by Esri. However, the growth has definitely been less than equal throughout the Houston area.

The data not only tracked the increase or decrease of each county, but also whether or not the change was due to natural causes, such as births and deaths, or new people moving to the county.

Houston is growing, but Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties dominate. Ninety percent of residents that moved to the Houston area between 2012 and 2013 moved to one of these three counties.

Harris County dominated the growth, accounting for more than 60 percent of the entire metro area's growth alone. More than 40,000 people moved to Harris County between 2012 and 2013, according to the Census Bureau data. About one-quarter of the growth in Harris County is attributed to an increase in residents who moved internationally.

Fort Bend County ranked among the top 100 fastest growing counties in the U.S. for 2012–2013. Coming in at No. 9, Fort Bend grew by 4.2 percent. Eighty percent of that growth is due the 21,000 people moving to the county, with only 20 percent of the increase due to births in the area. This pace of growth is likely to continue, if not appear even more striking in the next few years, as new developments spring up in Katy and Sugar Land.

Although half as many people moved to Montgomery County as Fort Bend, movers still far outpaced growing families as the drivers of the population increase, representing more than 75 percent of the county's total growth. Exxon Mobil Corp.'s (NYSE: XOM) move near The Woodlands has caused a flurry of homebuilding activity as developers anticipate continued growth in the area.

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