Here's a link to the
Forbes article:
It's about the fastest growing small towns. It uses percentages, so the smaller the community, the smaller the increase in the number of people for any given percentage increase. It credits the military for Fairbanks' population growth. That would explain why people move there despite the temperatures. Apparently, it's not by choice.
An oddity: It states that Fairbanks grew by 13.7 percent from 2006 to 2009. But, it states, "The Villages, Fla., a haven for retirees, saw its population increase by 13% to 77,681 in 2009." The sentence suggests a 13 percent increase in one year (2009). So there doesn't seem to be apples-to-apples comparison when the article declares "Fairbanks the fastest-growing small town in America."
Sterling journalism it isn't.
