Thriving metropolitan areas are anchor points that help define the essence of the heartland. Several of these key communities are highlighted in Heartland Forward’s 2024 report on the nation’s Most Dynamic Metropolitan areas. Learn more about what makes these cities so dynamic and unique below.

Most Dynamic Heartland Metros:

Ten heartland cities ranked in the top 50 Most Dynamic Metros:

• Midland, TX (No. 1 overall)
• Austin-Round Rock–San Marcos, TX (No. 4 overall)
• Sherman–Denison, TX (No. 13 overall)
• College Station–Bryan, TX (No. 21 overall)
• Auburn–Opelika, AL (No. 23 overall)
• Fayetteville–Springdale-Rogers, AR (No. 36 overall)
• Huntsville, AL (No. 38 overall)
• Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN (No. 45 overall)
• Daphne–Fairhope–Foley, AL (No. 47 overall)
• Slidell–Mandeville–Covington, LA (No. 49 overall)

Top Research Universities as an Anchor:

Education—along with industries like manufacturing, agriculture and technology—is a key pillar of the heartland’s success. Several of the leading heartland metropolitan areas are home to top research universities. The schools listed below are recognized as top research universities in the country, according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

• Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX (#4 Most Dynamic Metro) 
  Hosts the world-famous University of Texas at Austin which is known for conducting impressive research on everything from gene evolution to Amazonian languages, hydrogen fuel generation or skin patches that detect disease.
• College Station-Bryan, TX (#21 Most Dynamic Metro)
  Texas A&M sits in beautiful College-Station, Texas and is known as a world leader for conducting research in engineering, agriculture, and related fields. . 
• Auburn-Opelika, AL (#23 Most Dynamic Metro) 
  Auburn University hosts the National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence, which conducts research on additive manufacturing, often collaborating with NASA to develop improved liquid rocket engine performance.
• Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR (#36 Most Dynamic Metro)
  The University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville, is known for its space-focused research, as it’s home to a large-scale planetary simulation chamber and facilities capable of analyzing samples collected from outer space. 
• Huntsville, AL (#38 Most Dynamic Metro)
  University of Alabama, Huntsville is known as a leader in STEM research, focused primarily on astrophysics, aerospace engineering, cybersecurity, and digital animation.
• Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN (#45 Most Dynamic Metro)
  Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, TN, is a world-renowned institution of higher learning, primarily recognized for its prominence in biomedical and health care research, focused particularly on clinical medicine and pharmacology. 

Heartland Most Dynamic Metropolitan Areas by Size:

• Large metros (greater than 1,000,000 population)
  • 20 of the largest metros are in the heartland (36.4%), roughly its “fair share” since 39% of the U.S. population lives in the heartland
  • Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas is the highest ranked, large metro in the U.S. (1st in this population category), while Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tennessee is the 8th highest ranked metro in the U.S.
  • Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas is the largest heartland metro with 8,100,037 population (4th largest metro in U.S.), followed by Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, Texas with 7,510,253 population (5th largest metro in the U.S.)
• Medium metros (500,001 – 1,000,000 population)
  • 19 of the medium metros are in the heartland (33.9%)
  • Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas is the highest ranked heartland medium metro, 8th in this population category
  • Omaha, Nebraska-Iowa is the largest medium metro in the heartland with 983,969 population (2nd largest medium metro in the U.S.), followed by New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana with 962,165 population (4th largest medium metro in the U.S.)
• Small metros (up to 500,000 population)
  • 128 of the small metros are in the heartland (46.2%)
  • Midland, Texas is the highest ranked metro in the U.S. and therefore the highest ranked small metro; Sherman-Denison, Texas follows as the 9th ranked small metro (13th overall)
  • Springfield, Missouri is the largest heartland-based city in the small metro category, with a population of 491,053