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These places are all relatively close in population but have different growth rates and growth mechanisms going for them. Which makes a projection tough to do, but still possible all the same.
I'll go with Washington DC MSA because as long as the country grows, the federal government will become larger. That isn't to say that there is no private industry but many of the private industries that are located in the DC area are either directly or tangentially taking advantage of the high educated workforce that is there because of the government jobs.
It also has the least impediments to grow because there isn't as many geographic barriers, as there are in South Florida.
Next year Washington DC will inevitably take the 6th spot, even with any sort of dramatic slowdown. I feel like that is going to be short lived though, Washington DC's population growth appears to be poised for a period of cooldown. I think it is still reasonable to expect at minimum 50,000 people per year or slightly more, it has the fertility, age, immigration, and all of those dynamics working for it to guarantee that much. The gap over Miami isn't all that large right now, definitely nothing a 10,000 - 20,000 per year fluctuation couldn't change in a couple of years. I think Southeast Florida will eventually take the 6th spot from Washington DC, maybe around 2020-2025 time period.
I think Atlanta is the place to watch, technically if we look at only the last 1 year of data that we have available to us, it is growing faster than both Washington DC or Southeast Florida at this time. It can make up that gap by 2025 and take the 6th by the 2025-2030 time period. It has the current growth factor going for it.
The 6th spot in the United States is largely a revolving door, even at the beginning of the 2010s decade, it was not Philadelphia occupying the 6th spot (as it currently does) or any of these cities, it was Houston, which moved up and has since created a game of musical chairs for the 6th spot since.
I'm going to go out on a Limb and say Atlanta too. I think it's population is about to re-boom again and we're about to see several 100k+ metro growth years with the really high job growth and robust economy. Georgia is now number 2 in job growth just under California.
It could probably go any of the following: Washington, Miami, or Atlanta.
Chances are all three will sit in 6th at some point anyhow. So I guess all three would be a decent answer.
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