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San Jose is about there now. The census' 2011 estimate says SJ has 967,000--the city has one of the fastest growing metro economies in the entire country so I have no doubt that they will hit 1 million soon.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Tough call, Seattle is already 200K closer, but Atlanta has a lot of room for infill. Both cities have grown denser with more infill, but it seems Seattle is doing it more rapidly with more pro density growth from within. Atlanta seems to be at a crossroads where it has the Beltline and Peachtree streetcar projects idling. Seattle is moving a bit faster with residential density and streetcar. With MARTA heavy rail in place and more buildable land for infill certainly gives Atlanta an edge, Seattle only has one corridor for the current and future light rail. Atlanta's metro area sprawls out much further and is much bigger. I don't think either city would annex any land though I could be wrong, less likely for Seattle eating up the adjacent cities of Shoreline, Burien, or Tukwila and all the other boundaries are waterfront. This is a tossup.
Between those two, it seems like many more people are moving to Atlanta, but they're filling out the suburbs more than anything. I'm not sure either one will reach 1m on the census, but if one does it will probably be Seattle.
Atlanta-400 K
Seattle-620K
Atlanta is growing at 2% or so a year estimated by the census since 2010
Seattle is about the same however, seattle gained 70,000 people in the last census compared to atlanta's 20,000 i believe.
Seattle is more of an attraction for living than atlanta no matter what the press says or atlanta's hype. Most people who move to atlanta move to the suburbs of atlanta rather than the city while, a significantly higher ratio of people move to the city of seattle compared to the suburbs.
Seattle is also closer to gaining 1,000,000 first so its very likely that seattle will reach 1,000,000
Seattle has 7,000+ apartments under construction in downtown and 33,000 in city Seattle has been upzoning the neighborhoods and downtown the last few years to become much more dense. I think Seattle has the edge all new construction in Seattle has been either highrise or midrise developments.
Atlanta has a small land area - most of its growth will be in the suburbs.
I'll nominate Nashville/Davidson county if it's not there already, even though it is not as influential as ATL or SEA.
Seattle has a smaller land mass than Atlanta , Atlanta has 131 sq miles of land and Seattle is 83 Sq miles. Seattle is just much more dense than Atlanta .
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