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Comparing St. Louis, Houston and Atlanta
The densest 1% of the tracts in STL have 36,000 ppsm vs 16,000 for HOU and 30,000 for ATL
10% of the tract in STL have 12,500 vs 12,700 vs 6900 for ATL
overall the urban density is 2260 for STL vs 2550 for Houston vs 1600 fo ATL
And Phoenix has an overall urban density of 3200 ppsm
So the answer to the original question is of the largest 30 largest metro areas, Atlanta is the most sprawled and LA is the least.
Excellent post, louie! Comparing tract populationss is a much better measure of density than just comparing populations within metro boundaries!
I have been to STL, Houston, and Atlanta many times, and saying that either Houston or ATL are more dense than STL is absolutely stoopid. Two sunbelt cities, one has English as a second language and no "count" is valid, Five mexicans living in a one bedroom house does not "dense" make. The other is a huge urban sprawl that, although large and important, is no where close to being "dense".
For an interesting comparison of cities, go to the US Census webpage at Census Bureau Home Page You can compare densities of all metro and micro areas. Go to publications, Census of population and housing, 2000 census, population and housing counts, United States part 2. It shows only the urbanized areas of each city, not the entire population of the metro/micro area. It also shows the density of each place.
Five people living in a one bedroom home does dense make. I never said that ATL is more dense than STL, it's not but overall Houston is. Not in the inner city but when you take the whole area into account, it is. Numbers do not lie. Not believing them is stoopid. Now remember that Houston & Atlanta have larger populations than St. Louis, So of course the urbanized area will take up more land making it seem more sprawled.
It's your post. You can make the rules but certain cities can not be included such as St. Louis, Boston, or any older large city. They are landlocked by their inner ring suburbs. They can not sprawl. Only their outer suburbs can.
Why do people think that sprawl must be 'suburban' in nature.
Sprawl is any type of development moving outwards from the urban center. this can be in the form of any type of development moving outwards whether urban, suburban or whatever.
Either way id say phoenix or atlanta have to be considered.
The word sprawl can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
The city of ATL has a density of 3700 ppsm. Is that sprawled?
Phoenix has 3150 ppsm. Is that sprawled?
I guess if you compare that to Chicago with 12700 ppsm.
when i think of sprawl, i think of suburbia that goes on forever
using this definition, i would say LA, DFW, Atlanta, and Houston.
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