Portland Has the Second-Fastest Rideshare Growth in the Country

Portland is given a lot of superlatives loosely based in fact.

Well, here's one that's based in Census data: Portland is second in the nation for the fastest rideshare growth, at least from 2014 to 2015. The only city beating us? Austin, Texas.

According to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau, nonemployer businesses (gig economy work) in the transit and ground transportation sector, which includes rideshares, taxi and limousine services, chartered bus, school bus and special needs transportation, increased by 59.4 percent in 2015—that's for the entire U.S.

Additionally, freelance workers in the nonemployer businesses in the transit and ground transportation sector increased by 63 percent in 2015.

Portland was second on the list of the 50 metropolitan areas with the most growth in nonemployer firms in the ground and transportation sector from 2014-2015, showing a nearly 160 percent growth in non-employer firms in 2015, after a slow start in 2013 and 2014. Following Portland, (which includes Vancouver and Hillsboro) is Sacramento, Pittsburgh, Riverside, Calif. and Las Vegas.

Austin, Texas had a growth of nearly 180 percent from 2014 to 2015. This year, however, the city has a relationship with Uber and Lyft that's a little more complicated. In May, Austin voted to require ridesharing drivers to undergo background checks and ban them from picking up passengers in traffic lanes, which prompted Uber and Lyft to pull out of the city. Last week, however, state legislature overruled the law, which will allow Lyft and Uber to return.

Here's the entire list:

The bottom of the list has Buffalo, NY, the New York-New Jersey-Newark area and Minneapolis.