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How is Meck county..."almost filled up" when there are farms 10 mins outside of downtown...there are rural parts of the county...so it is far from "filled up"??
I know there are plenty of rural parts what I'm saying is there is not as much land in Mecklenburg as their is in Wake and considering their populations are about the same that means Mecklenburg is far more built up than Wake, there is less room to grow. And I know neither county is even close to being entirely developed maybe I should have said more of Mecklenburg is built up. Now if you were to take an area of the Charlotte metro the size of Wake to make the land area more equal, there would be even more rural land but the population would be higher than Wake. In other words Charlotte's core area is more developed, whereas Raleigh-Durham is spread between 3 cities. And considering both Raleigh and Durham are in the top 5 largest cities in the state and correct me if I'm wrong I think Cary is 6th, Charlotte holds it's own. When you consider that Charlotte is just 1 city and the Triangle has three I think Charlotte does pretty well. True, the city of Charlotte covers a lot more land area than Raleigh, but city population is not as good a measure of an area's true size as the metro pop, Charlotte is still a bit larger than the Triangle, maybe not by a wide margin, but still a significant amount especially when you are comparing 1 city to 3 plus the largest suburb in the state. But anyway that is just my spin on things everyone is free to their own opinion, but the fact is nobody knows for sure what the future holds for either region, only time will tell.
That's not necessarily true. Charlotte is over 300 sq miles... Raleigh is only 141 sq miles. Now if you're are talking about population, Charlotte is only slightly larger than the Raleigh area. Raleigh is bounded by multiple sizable towns, not to mention Durham to the west. That's almost like comparing Baltimore to Jacksonville.
Uhm Charlotte is only 242 sq miles of land.
Charlotte- 727,000 people
Raleigh-- 400,000 people
wake county is over 800 sq miles of land
Mecklenburg county is only 530 sq miles.
Raleigh is no where close to catchin up to Charlotte in anyway shape or form and that includes Amenities, Culture, Sports, Diversity, business, transportation, infrastructure,population, everything(and that includes, Durham,Cary). I wish people would stop assuming that because Raleigh makes all of these LIst it can handle Charlotte.
Charlotte GDP -- 120 billion
Raleigh Gdp---- 35 billion
Raleigh/ Durham/ Cary GDP----- 70 billion
not even close
FYI: I think Raleigh is growing up pretty well and fast but has a ways to go before it catches up to Charlotte.
And on another note banking only makes up 10% of Charlottes GDP and Charlotte has its own Research Park which is the 7th largest in the country(please look up before commenting).
Raleigh is no where close to catchin up to Charlotte in anyway shape or form and that includes Amenities, Culture, Sports, Diversity, business, transportation, infrastructure,population, everything(and that includes, Durham,Cary). I wish people would stop assuming that because Raleigh makes all of these LIst it can handle Charlotte.
Charlotte GDP -- 120 billion
Raleigh Gdp---- 35 billion
Raleigh/ Durham/ Cary GDP----- 70 billion
not even close
FYI: I think Raleigh is growing up pretty well and fast but has a ways to go before it catches up to Charlotte.
And on another note banking only makes up 10% of Charlotte's GDP and Charlotte has its own Research Park which is the 7th largest in the country(please look up before commenting).
I don't know where you got your stats from, but they are mostly wrong.
According to the Charlotte Chamber, Charlotte is over 300 sq miles. Wiki perhaps? Charlotte is one of the least dense cities in the nation. Raleigh is the most dense major city in the State. Currently Raleigh is roughly 425,000 within 142 sq miles. It also on of the fastest growing cities per capita in the U.S.
Almost the entire section of Northern wake county is protected watershed. Like I said, almost all of wake county's population surrounds Raleigh and it's adjacent suburbs. Have a look at Wake county's density maps.
The Triangle's Research Triangle Park is the largest research park in the nation! University City in Charlotte is quite small by comparison.
The GDP figures you speak of are incorrect. Durham has a GDP of 32 billion by itself. The combined Triangle GDP is quickly approaching 100 billion. Quite imppressive for an area that doesn't have two banks assets factored into the figures. Stats can be tricky. Charlotte and Raleigh's per capita GDP are very much close to each others so.... Charlotte is still the major transportation and textile hub of the state. Raleigh is the major educational, biopharma, and research hub, second only to Boston.
We can go back and forth all we want, but Raleigh and Charlotte are like comparing apples and oranges. The layouts of the Triangle is completely different than Charlotte's. Raleigh has to share it's fame with other cities in the area, because well that's the make up of the area....
The Triangle is quickly approaching 1.8 million. Charlotte is quickly approaching 1.9 million. Not much of a difference... Different layouts just make them hard to compare.
The Triangle is quickly approaching 1.8 million. Charlotte is quickly approaching 1.9 million. Not much of a difference... Different layouts just make them hard to compare.
So to be fair then, you'd use Charlotte's CSA figure of ~2.4 million.
So to be fair then, you'd use Charlotte's CSA figure of ~2.4 million.
I'm comparing Raleigh/Durham's real metro numbers to metro Charlotte. Charlotte's CSA is a joke. Charlotte is isolated unlike Raleigh, and is allowed to take on numerous rural counties. The Triangle metro is boxed in all directions by other metros. Raleigh/Durham's CSA figure is one of the biggest census screw ups ever. Part of Raleigh is in Durham county and vice-versa, but they're separate metros?
Both areas are large in different ways. They aren't really comparable. It's like comparing Baltimore to Atlanta then pretending DC isn't right down the street.
I'm comparing Raleigh/Durham's real metro numbers to metro Charlotte. Charlotte's CSA is a joke.
No it's not. The same formula used to calculate Charlotte's CSA is the same used to calculate other CSAs. Sure the Triangle and Charlotte have different layouts and Raleigh and Durham are connected at the hip, but you can't toss out another number for another city just because you don't like how they are calculated.
No it's not. The same formula used to calculate Charlotte's CSA is the same used to calculate other CSAs. Sure the Triangle and Charlotte have different layouts and Raleigh and Durham are connected at the hip, but you can't toss out another number for another city just because you don't like how they are calculated.
The Triangle and Charlottemetro areas are roughly the same land size. Charlotte's CSA is almost 7000 sq miles! It's 13 thirteen counties! The Triangle is only 7! The so called Raleigh metro is only 3! If you want to see a real metro area around 2.5 million people try Tampa, Baltimore, Denver, or Portland. Charlotte looks like a metro of 1.8 million. Charlotte's (UA) is no where close to any of those cities! However Raleigh's UA is now close to Charlotte's go figure. Jacksonville FL is another city that has misleading stats.
The Triangle and Charlottemetro areas are roughly the same land size. Charlotte's CSA is almost 7000 sq miles! It's 13 thirteen counties! The Triangle is only 7! The so called Raleigh metro is only 3! If you want to see a real metro area around 2.5 million people try Tampa, Baltimore, Denver, or Portland. Charlotte looks like a metro of 1.8 million. Charlotte's (UA) is no where close to any of those cities! However Raleigh's UA is now close to Charlotte's go figure. Jacksonville FL is another city that has misleading stats.
The number of counties isn't what counts; it's economic connectivity among the counties. Charlotte has smaller satellite cities that surround it that obviously receive overflow from Charlotte but at the same time have a bit more workers staying within their counties instead of traveling to the core counties for employment (e.g, Statesville, Mooresville, Lancaster, Salisbury, etc.). That is what accounts for the large CSA figure. If you understand the layout behind the numbers, then it makes sense.
As far as Jax, it only has misleading stats as a city due to the city-county consolidation. Otherwise, it's an appropriate size for a metro of ~1.3 million.
The Triangle has a large economic impact on the Triad, Fayetteville, and Rocky Mount metros, however it cannot lay claim to there respective counties because they have sizable cities within them. The Triangle reminds me of Hampton Roads in the sense it doesn't have just one major city at it's core. Very different areas and very difficult to compare. The Triangle is not that far behind Charlotte. Charlotte is a more cohesive and distinct metro than the Triangle.
When you say Raleigh-Durham's metro population is approaching 1.8 million, I am assuming you got that number from Wikipedia, which lists the CSA at 1,742,816. So, that is not the true MSAs for Raleigh-Durham and to be fair you can combine the 2 and you would get around 1.6 million and some change. Charlotte's MSA alone already stands at close to 1.8 million and if they were to include a few extra counties as I have heard discussed before it would probably be closer to 2 million. That is a sizeable difference in just the MSA alone, even as it is, almost 200,000 people is a pretty big difference for metros this size. With a larger metro, I could understand the gap wouldn't seem that big but 200,000 people is a pretty big difference that's like adding another Durham to the Triangle. And this is without counting Iredell and Lincoln I believe, which would be more appropriate to include than Anson, but it is what it is. But yea if u want to go by CSA then Raleigh Durham is just under 1.8 million and Charlotte is over 2.4-2.5 million which is a huge difference. You can't have it both ways the numbers already are in the Triangle's favor by default considering they are 3 cities and cover a larger area. And Charlotte is still significantally larger. But if u use the CSA for one you might as well use it for the other, it's not fair to use one figure for the triangle to validate your point when you are using a different figure entirely for Charlotte. The point is, Charlotte is still larger, and even if the Charlotte area were to completely stop growing, which isn't likely, it took Raleigh about a decade to add 120 something thousand people so if you include the whole Triangle area, since it would be significantly more people, it might take less than a decade to catch Charlotte but at least 5 years. And like I said in that time Charlotte is bound to grow a good bit too most likely so I don't see the Triangle catching Charlotte for at least 15 years imo, and a lot could happen in 15 years. It will be interesting to see how it plays out regardless of the outcome, Raleigh is a cool city and I like it, but the truth is it will not be passing Charlotte anytime soon unless your definition of soon is two decades.
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Charlotte is still the major transportation and textile hub of the state. Raleigh is the major educational, biopharma, and research hub, second only to Boston. 
