The engine powering Charlotte's growth is typically well growth. You've probably heard some version of the figure describing how many people move here every day. Newly released census figures are shedding light on the latest trends in growth around our region. Here to talk about that, and more, is the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter's Tony Mecia for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: So, Tony, what do the numbers show us? And what's the significance for area businesses and residents?
Tony Mecia: Yeah, Marshall, there are a few different things to note about these numbers. For Mecklenburg, for the first time, our population surpassed 1.2 million people — 1,206,285 for people who might want to know the precise figure. And that's 30,000 more than were here a year earlier, and it's the most people that Mecklenburg has added in a single year since 2007. We added about 20,000 the previous year. So, now that we added 30,000 in the year ending in July of 2024, the metro area added 61,000 people and is now nearly 2.9 million residents.
It's always a question when you talk about growth — it's a question about infrastructure. Is it keeping pace? Do we have the roads that we need? Do we have enough schools? All of these are questions that, when you talk about growth, are sure to arise.
Terry: Well, let's settle it. How many people a day is the Charlotte population increasing by now?
Mecia: It's a little bit of a complicated answer because population growth is a couple of different things. It's the number of births minus the number of deaths, and it's also the number of people moving here minus the people who are leaving. So, if you look at the number of people moving here versus leaving, that number for Mecklenburg County was about 22,000 people net, who came here in the last year. And most of that, incidentally, was international. So if you look at that figure from Mecklenburg, it's about 60 people a day. If you look at the region as a whole, it's about 141 a day. Should be worth noting that the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance also looks at these numbers, puts out its own figure of how many people are moving to the region a day. They use a slightly different region. Their number for the last year was 117 a day to the Charlotte region.
Terry: All right. Turning to arts now. The Ledger has been covering a recent shake up over at Opera Carolina. What's going on there?
Mecia: It's been a fixture in Charlotte's art scene since it was founded in 1948. It's the largest opera company in the Carolinas. There's a little bit of turmoil and turnover going on over there. The opera's longtime artistic director was quietly replaced. Its production director, who had been there for two decades, was fired and is suing. And then the new general director says, in response to that lawsuit that she had been defamed. But the opera's new general director, Shante Williams, told us in a statement that "with leadership often comes a new direction," and that since taking the helm of Opera Carolina, she has "worked to improve the organization's solvency while bringing to life its mission of delivering excellent opera education and public programs."
Terry: All right. Onto housing now. You report a developer is changing up plans for a project on Providence Road and is now calling for townhouses instead of apartments. Which project, and why the switch?
Mecia: The area we're talking about here is on Providence Road near Charlotte Latin School, where developer C Investments 2 had proposed a rezoning that called for about 424 market-rate apartments and about 120 affordable apartments. At a meeting last year, the developer said the numbers weren't going to work. Now there are new plans. Instead of more than 500 apartments, the new plans called for 220 townhouses as well as some single-family houses at a nearby parcel. A lot of the neighbors still have concerns about traffic.
Terry: Finally, just in time for the start of the busy summer travel season, Spirit Airlines is adding some destinations from Charlotte. Where will I be able to go?
Mecia: On Spirit, it is loaded in some new flights to Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Nashville. Now, these are only a few times a week. The fares do tend to be cheaper, but they are, like I say, less convenient. And then also, as a low-cost carrier, Marshall, if you're planning to check a bag or even carry on a bag, you better be prepared to pay for it.
Support for BizWorthy comes from the law office of Robertson and Associates.
