largest US cities

[MJLO]

It's weird that she would say tampa of all cities in florida, I would think that she would have considered Miami bigger. But guess that just goes to show you, it doesn't always matter.

my little brother:

New York

Los Angeles

Chicago

Detroit

Dallas

[bhooley]

I'm a firm believer that you need to consider the size of a city based on it's metro area. All of the old Northeastern cities split off into multiple entities that are still considered part of the urban ring but not technically part of the city.

So the only real way to compare say Boston vs. Austin, TX for example is to use their metro populations: Boston: city ~600,00 Austin ~600,000 yet metro Boston is 6 million while Austin is only 1 million (similar to a Providence, RI).

Thoughts?

[marathon]

I'm a firm believer that you need to consider the size of a city based on it's metro area. All of the old Northeastern cities split off into multiple entities that are still considered part of the urban ring but not technically part of the city.

So the only real way to compare say Boston vs. Austin, TX for example is to use their metro populations: Boston: city ~600,00 Austin ~600,000 yet metro Boston is 6 million while Austin is only 1 million (similar to a Providence, RI).

Thoughts?

Metro areas aren't much more useful than cities...both are defined by administrative area boundaries, which can vary wildly in size (The Las Vegas metro is the size of West Virginia, for example, but the urban area is quite small in extent).

Urban areas and urban clusters are the truest indicator...they are defined without regard to administrative borders.

[MJLO]

I have to agree with that, I'd say a metro area would be somewhat more representative than a city, however urban area, or cluster by far the best. Older cities in states like NY Ohio and MI are land locked. Whereas cities in areas that are prone to more growth and less regulation have massive land areas. It's why in Texas you have a number of cities with huge populations. Whereas in Michigan due to annexation laws that make it next to impossible, you have a number of mid sized - smaller cities. If Michigan didn't have Charter twps it's cities would probabally be larger and more representative of their metro areas.

[dtown]

^ uggg, the charter townships, so stupid....

[Snowguy716]

I asked my mom and she said the following:

1. New York

2. Los Angeles

3. Chicago

4. Houston

5. San Francisco

6. Washington D.C.

I told her what they were and she scorned at San Diego, Phoenix, San Jose.. all these 1 storey splats in the desert.

My mom was a Minneapolis girl, however.. and there her heart remains.

[MadVlad]

1) New York City

2) Los Angeles

3) Chicago

4) Atlanta

5) Boston

All that per my wife. She got 3 out of 5, not bad...

[dimebag1980]

1) New York City

2) Los Angeles

3) Chicago

4) Atlanta

5) Boston

All that per my wife. She got 3 out of 5, not bad...

Not bad at all for probably not being obsessed with cities like most of us on UP... She did great! If not for me constantly pestering my wife with trivial information about cities, she probably wouldn't have gotten 3 out of 5. She can probably list the top 10 fairly easily, though. But just incase, I'll spare her the embarrassment!!

[MJLO]

Metro guy that's really funny, I pester my brothers and sisters tirelessly with trivial city information. I can say they are much better informed though because i'm such a nerd. My twin has become pretty good at it. I'm still the only person anyone calls when ever they have a statistical question about cities.

[dimebag1980]

Metro guy that's really funny, I pester my brothers and sisters tirelessly with trivial city information. I can say they are much better informed though because i'm such a nerd. My twin has become pretty good at it. I'm still the only person anyone calls when ever they have a statistical question about cities.

You have a twin!? Wow, that's cool. You know, I've know tons of people in my life and only one set of twins that I can remember. What was weird about them was one lived with his mother and one lived with his father. The one who lived with his father was a Blood and the other was a Crip. Those boys hated each other.

But that's neither here nor there, because I doubt you and your twin are like that. But I'm sure you have one well-educated twin!!

[MJLO]

My twin is a girl, she is the evil one. We get along very well, but she would sell my mother should it benefit her.

[Newnan]

my brother thinks all this Urban Planet stuff is crazy. he doesn't understand why I like it so much.. I guess he never will

[dimebag1980]

my brother thinks all this Urban Planet stuff is crazy. he doesn't understand why I like it so much.. I guess he never will

No one understands my fascination, so I can relate with you very easily.

My own wife wonders about me...

[SouthParkRocks]

LOL yea....

The real 20 largest cities....Just cities (not counting metros)

1.New York

2.Los Angeles

3.Chicago

4.Houston

5.Philadelphia

6.Phoenix

7.San Diego

8.San Antonio

9.Dallas

10.San Jose

11.Detroit

12.Jacksonville

13.Indianapolis

14.San Francisco

15.Columbus

16.Louisville

17.Austin

18.Memphis

19.Baltimore

20.Fort Worth

Just read in the local paper today that San Antonio passed us (San Diego) last year. :-(

We actually lost about 5000 people. Costs a bit of money to live in Paradise so a few took their housing apprecitation fortunes and moved elsewhere.

Well, that doesn't make too many folks unhappy-suburban development has been going crazy for a few years and when they are planning a 22 lane-wide highway up the road I'd say we have enough fine folks here.

[Spades]

I don't think people forget about the south. I think when you're talking about people who are not nerds (like those of us at Urban Planet.) When they think about the largest cities, the first thing that comes to mind, are what they hear and see on TV. The two largest cities in the south, Dallas, and Houston. Just don't get very much airtime on Television, and on screen. I think alot of people gauge how large a city is based on Metropolitan areas. Funny that in the south Miami has the largest metro area, I bet most people who were not in the know would think that Miami was the largest city. Or perhaps Atlanta.

The largest metro areas in the south would be

Miami

Dallas

Houston

and then Atlanta.

they are all so close in population too, they kind of meld with the other metropolis' in that population bracket.

huh? Dallas is the largest metro in the south with over 6.2 million.

[PghUSA]

Interesting stats, I would think if you had a sales chart of American autos corresponding to those years the two would be quite similar. Being from a rust belt city the biggest sin they committed was being too heavily dependent on one industry segment, Rochester with old film development, Pittsburgh with steel and some natural gas/oil, Cleveland the same only inverted, etc.

[dimebag1980]

huh? Dallas is the largest metro in the south with over 6.2 million.

Very true. This still surprises me with as huge a city as Houston is, but there is no disputing the facts. In comparison, Chicago is over 9 million people... Dallas' metro really isn't very far behind Chicago's metro.

[richyb83]

The Dallas metroplex includes so many cities( including #20 Fort Worth) it makes my head spin.

When listing U.S. largest cities it just seems obsurd Nashville at 570,000 is considered larger than Atlanta's 420,000. However Atlanta's metro at 4.7 million dwarfs Nashville's 1.3 million.

[richyb83]

My wife's rankings were:

New York City

Los Angeles

Houston

Atlanta

Dallas

Miami

Boston

Chicago

* she finally said Chicago at # 8 that's where I stopped. She's a southern girl though and said she just started naming large cities after Los Angeles. So now she feels stupid for putting Miami ahead of Chicago + she's a Math teacher.

[dimebag1980]

The Dallas metroplex includes so many cities( including #20 Fort Worth) it makes my head spin.

When listing U.S. largest cities it just seems obsurd Nashville at 570,000 is considered larger than Atlanta's 420,000. However Atlanta's metro at 4.7 million dwarfs Nashville's 1.3 million.

It is odd how metro vs. city populations can be so skewed. Nashville is a pretty big city, no doubt, but bigger than Atlanta?? According to city population, yes... metro population, no. Just like, someone who didn't know any better would think Dallas was larger than Houston if all they were given were metro populations.

[MadVlad]

Not bad at all for probably not being obsessed with cities like most of us on UP... She did great! If not for me constantly pestering my wife with trivial information about cities, she probably wouldn't have gotten 3 out of 5. She can probably list the top 10 fairly easily, though. But just incase, I'll spare her the embarrassment!!

Ironically, she's from Philly and missed it completely....

[willacoochee]

Here is how some of the people I asked done.....

My mom: (please don't criticize her, although hers were funny to me, she's not into demographics)...

1. Atlanta, Georgia

2. Anchorage, Alaska

My sister:

1. Los Angels, California

2. Atlanta, Georgia

3. Houston, Texas

4. Chicago, Illinois

5. San Francisco, California

My cousin:

1. Los Angels, California

2. Boston, Massachusetts

3. New York, New York

My aunt:

1. New York, New York

2. Los Angels, California

3. Chicago, Illinois

4. Atlanta, Georgia

5. Houston, Texas

My granny:

1. New York, New York

2. Miami, Florida

3. Atlanta, Georgia

4. New Orleans, Louisiana (she said before Hurricane Katrina)

5. Jacksonville, Florida

[convulso]

i think if you're the tpye of person (as so many on a board like this are) who's into demographics and stats, it's pretty unthinkable that the average person could be so off on questions like this.

what freaked me was when the head of the school of architecture at a well-respected school i attended was talking with us in seminar and asked (rhetorically, he thought) 'isn't atlanta's metro the largest in the country now?' - even the 'tards in that class were shaking their heads. this was spring of 2005. in his defense, atlanta does seem bigger than it is.

[bhooley]

Glad to hear other people bombard their spouses with trivial facts about cities! My wife listens with love, but I know what she's really thinking!

Even if you don't go by metro area for comparing cities, urban area still shows a more "real" comparison. I'd like to compile a list of cities and their actual population vs. metro vs. urban area (cluster). I think we'd find that it would be more like:

1. NYC

2. LA

3. Chicago - no difference for these 3

but...

after that San Fran, Boston, Philly and DC would probably be the next tier of cities.

[colin]

I sent the question out to a select list of friends and family in and originally from various parts of the country.

This is the first one I got back. I copied/pasted directly to demonstrate his grammar (every email I've gotten from him, regardless of length, has had at least one spelling error):

New York City

Los Angeles

Boston

Philidelphia

Miami

Chicago

San Francisco

Phoenix

Seattle

Detroit

Interesting thing is that he did his bachelor's at University of Illinois yet ranks Chicago pretty low. Pretty good though.

My dad (who lives in Houston, but is very well-traveled) sent this:

New York

Los Angeles

Chicago

Houston

Philadelphia

Tampa

Boston

Dallas

San Francisco

Phoenix

Tampa?! Whatever, dad.

A female friend from Salt Lake City who I went to high school with in China:

new york

los angeles

houston

atlanta

boston

philadelphia

dallas

san francisco

chicago

denver

A friend originally from San Antonio who now lives in Boulder:

1. New York

2. Los Angeles

3. Chicago

4. Houston

5. Philadelphia

6. Dallas/Fort Worth

7. San Francisco

8. Atlanta

9. San Antonio

10. St. Louis