Here is another way to look at the census population estimates I posted yesterday. Out of the 273 cities in the United States with a population over 100, 000, Arlington and Alexandria were the 18th and 20th fastest-growing between 2007 and 2008. That’s pretty darn impressive, considering they’re both land-locked core jurisdictions with no way to grow except infill. Washington itself, for the record, ranks as the 160th fastest growing city. That’s not quite the top half, but it’s a long, long way from the bottom.

National rankings aren’t available for all incorporated cities (only those over 100, 000), so we can’t rank growth in the likes of Gaithersburg and Rockville on a national level, but we can get an update on the always-exciting race to be Maryland’s second largest city from the state list. Baltimore is far and away Maryland’s largest incorporated city, but after that it gets dicey, with three cities in close proximity to each other vying for second place. In recent years all of them have ranked as high as second, but what about this year? Gaithersburg is 4th at 58, 744, Frederick is third at 59, 213, and Rockville is second at 60, 734 – having become just this year only the second Maryland city to break the 60, 000 mark. Fifth place Bowie is relatively distant from the pack with 52, 544, but still far ahead of numbers six and seven Hagerstown and Annapolis, which have only 39, 728 and 36, 524, respectively.