Phoenix leads in growth, but wealth disparity is wide, report shows NAIOP Posted at 8:54 AM, Feb 26, 2021 and last updated 2021-02-26 10:55:13-05 Phoenix has consistently been one of the fastest-growing large metros in the country, but new data from the Brookings Institution shows prosperity has not kept up with the growing population. Brookings Metro Monitor ranked Phoenix 19th out of 53 very large metros on growth and 46th on prosperity using data from 2009 to 2019. He notes that although there has been much effort put in over that decade to grow and diversify the areaâs economy, that has not yet come to fruition.