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For reference (all North American cities in order)...
Spoiler
Mexico City - 22.4m (incl. Nezahuacoyotl, Ecatepec, Naucalpan)
1. New York - 21.9m (incl. Bridgeport, Newark, New Haven)
2. Los Angeles - 17.4m (incl. Anaheim, Riverside)
3. Chicago - 9.8m
4. Washington - 8.3m (incl. Baltimore)
5. San Francisco - 7.5m (incl. Concord, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Rosa)
6. Boston - 7.4m (incl. Providence)
7. Philadelphia - 7.3m (incl. Allentown, Trenton) Toronto - 7.0m (incl. Hamilton)
8. Dallas - 6.5m (incl. Fort Worth)
9. Houston - 6.1m
10. Miami - 6.0m (incl. Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach)
11. Detroit - 5.7m (incl. Toledo, Windsor)
12. Atlanta - 5.4m Guadalajara - 4.9m (incl. Zapopan) Monterrey - 4.6m
13. Phoenix - 4.3m
14. Seattle - 4.1m Montreal - 4.0m
15. Tampa - 4.0m (incl. Lakeland, St. Petersburg, Sarasota) Santo Domingo - 3.6m
16. Denver - 3.5m
17. San Diego - 3.2m
18. Cleveland - 3.1m
19. Minneapolis - 3.0m
20. Orlando - 3.0m Guatemala City - 3.0m Puebla - 3.0m Port-au-Prince - 2.8
21. Cincinnati - 2.7m Vancouver - 2.5m
22. St. Louis - 2.4m
23. Portland - 2.3m
24. Salt Lake City - 2.3m (incl. Ogden, Provo)
25. Charlotte - 2.2m Havana - 2.2m
26. San Juan - 2.2m Toluca - 2.2m
27. Pittsburgh - 2.1m
28. Las Vegas - 2.1m
29. San Antonio - 2.0m
30. Sacramento - 2.0m Tijuana - 1.9m
31. Indianapolis - 1.9m
32. Kansas City - 1.9m San Salvador - 1.9m San Jose (Costa Rica) - 1.8m Leon - 1.7m
33. Hartford - 1.7m (incl. Springfield)
34. Austin - 1.7m
35. Columbus - 1.6m
36. Virginia Beach - 1.6m (incl. Norfolk)
37. Milwaukee - 1.5m
38. Raleigh - 1.5m Juarez - 1.5m Panama City - 1.4m Calgary - 1.4m
39. Buffalo - 1.4m (incl. St. Catharines)
40. Nashville - 1.3m
41. Jacksonville - 1.3m Torreon - 1.3m
42. Harrisburg - 1.3m (incl. Lancaster, York) Managua - 1.3m Edmonton - 1.2m
43. McAllen - 1.2m (incl. Brownsville) Queretaro - 1.2m
44. Stockton - 1.2m (incl. Modesto) Ottawa - 1.2m
45. Memphis - 1.2m San Luis Potosi - 1.1m Tegucigalpa - 1.1m
46. Melbourne (FL) - 1.1m (incl. Palm Bay, Port St. Lucie)
47. Greensboro - 1.1m
48. Oklahoma City - 1.1m Merida - 1.1m
49. Louisville - 1.0m Mexicali - 1.0m
50. Richmond - 1.0m Aguascalientes - 1.0m
51. El Paso - 1.0m (incl. Las Cruces)
Some odd bits. Why does Detroit get to be grouped with Windsor but San Diego doesn't get to be grouped with Tijuana? And Buffalo gets St. Catharines but El Paso and Juarez are separate? Also what's with St. Louis and Minneapolis, why are they WAY lower than their real-life MSAs when most of the other big cities are about the same or significantly higher? Where did they get nearly an extra MILLION people for Denver apparently without adding any of the surrounding metros? Not even Boulder?
But I am very interested in some of the smaller conglomerations like Harrisburg and Stockton that wind up pulling together quite large numbers without being very cohesive at all.
Harrisburg is sort of odd to me - the area it covers is sort of triangle and pretty decent gaps in between with small to mid sized cities at each point - probably 15 miles from each other - probably just enough development in between to maintain some minimum to meet the criteria - but would seem like exurb type development for a few miles in the middle of the connections with a few decent sized towns on the path to and from - I guess Hershey is also in this mix only about 5 or so miles east of Harrisburg - this metro sits directly west of Philly and directly north of DC/Baltimore (maybe 1.5 hour from both (DC/Philly); closest to Baltimore I believe)
Also I thought Toronto would be larger - always seems closer to Chicago than Philly
One other thing for FL - Tampa and Orlando or sort of close and combined are 7+ million
Last edited by kidphilly; 01-30-2015 at 06:20 AM..
Harrisburg is sort of odd to me - the area it covers is sort of triangle and pretty decent gaps in between with small to mid sized cities at each point - probably 15 miles from each other - probably just enough development in between to maintain some minimum to meet the criteria - but would seem like exurb type development for a few miles in the middle of the connections with a few decent sized towns on the path to and from - I guess Hershey is also in this mix only about 5 or so miles east of Harrisburg - this metro sits directly west of Philly and directly north of DC/Baltimore (maybe 1.5 hour from both (DC/Philly); closest to Baltimore I believe)
Also I thought Toronto would be larger - always seems closer to Chicago than Philly
One other thing for FL - Tampa and Orlando or sort of close and combined are 7+ million
Toronto's numbers would be near 9 million if the Greater Golden Horseshoe was included, which would be more in line with the areas included in American cities.
For reference (all North American cities in order)...
Spoiler
Mexico City - 22.4m (incl. Nezahuacoyotl, Ecatepec, Naucalpan)
1. New York - 21.9m (incl. Bridgeport, Newark, New Haven)
2. Los Angeles - 17.4m (incl. Anaheim, Riverside)
3. Chicago - 9.8m
4. Washington - 8.3m (incl. Baltimore)
5. San Francisco - 7.5m (incl. Concord, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Rosa)
6. Boston - 7.4m (incl. Providence)
7. Philadelphia - 7.3m (incl. Allentown, Trenton) Toronto - 7.0m (incl. Hamilton)
8. Dallas - 6.5m (incl. Fort Worth)
9. Houston - 6.1m
10. Miami - 6.0m (incl. Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach)
11. Detroit - 5.7m (incl. Toledo, Windsor)
12. Atlanta - 5.4m Guadalajara - 4.9m (incl. Zapopan) Monterrey - 4.6m
13. Phoenix - 4.3m
14. Seattle - 4.1m Montreal - 4.0m
15. Tampa - 4.0m (incl. Lakeland, St. Petersburg, Sarasota) Santo Domingo - 3.6m
16. Denver - 3.5m
17. San Diego - 3.2m
18. Cleveland - 3.1m
19. Minneapolis - 3.0m
20. Orlando - 3.0m Guatemala City - 3.0m Puebla - 3.0m Port-au-Prince - 2.8
21. Cincinnati - 2.7m Vancouver - 2.5m
22. St. Louis - 2.4m
23. Portland - 2.3m
24. Salt Lake City - 2.3m (incl. Ogden, Provo)
25. Charlotte - 2.2m Havana - 2.2m
26. San Juan - 2.2m Toluca - 2.2m
27. Pittsburgh - 2.1m
28. Las Vegas - 2.1m
29. San Antonio - 2.0m
30. Sacramento - 2.0m Tijuana - 1.9m
31. Indianapolis - 1.9m
32. Kansas City - 1.9m San Salvador - 1.9m San Jose (Costa Rica) - 1.8m Leon - 1.7m
33. Hartford - 1.7m (incl. Springfield)
34. Austin - 1.7m
35. Columbus - 1.6m
36. Virginia Beach - 1.6m (incl. Norfolk)
37. Milwaukee - 1.5m
38. Raleigh - 1.5m Juarez - 1.5m Panama City - 1.4m Calgary - 1.4m
39. Buffalo - 1.4m (incl. St. Catharines)
40. Nashville - 1.3m
41. Jacksonville - 1.3m Torreon - 1.3m
42. Harrisburg - 1.3m (incl. Lancaster, York) Managua - 1.3m Edmonton - 1.2m
43. McAllen - 1.2m (incl. Brownsville) Queretaro - 1.2m
44. Stockton - 1.2m (incl. Modesto) Ottawa - 1.2m
45. Memphis - 1.2m San Luis Potosi - 1.1m Tegucigalpa - 1.1m
46. Melbourne (FL) - 1.1m (incl. Palm Bay, Port St. Lucie)
47. Greensboro - 1.1m
48. Oklahoma City - 1.1m Merida - 1.1m
49. Louisville - 1.0m Mexicali - 1.0m
50. Richmond - 1.0m Aguascalientes - 1.0m
51. El Paso - 1.0m (incl. Las Cruces)
Some odd bits. Why does Detroit get to be grouped with Windsor but San Diego doesn't get to be grouped with Tijuana? And Buffalo gets St. Catharines but El Paso and Juarez are separate? Also what's with St. Louis and Minneapolis, why are they WAY lower than their real-life MSAs when most of the other big cities are about the same or significantly higher? Where did they get nearly an extra MILLION people for Denver apparently without adding any of the surrounding metros? Not even Boulder?
But I am very interested in some of the smaller conglomerations like Harrisburg and Stockton that wind up pulling together quite large numbers without being very cohesive at all.
I've been visiting the linked site for about five years. While I appreciate that someone is making a serious effort at finding a means to normalize the definitions of metro populations on an international level, these numbers do suffer from many issues.
To begin with, there are several definitions of population measurement which are being intermingled on the list: "agglomeration", "conglomeration", "urban population of administrative areas", "city", "consolidated Urban Area", and "urban population of municipalities". All of these have different meanings in different countries. Their equivalencies range from the population within the corporate limits of a city, to the population of an entire region.
For cities in The United States, the demographer(s) here is using something they call "consolidated Urban Area" (CUA). The problem is that this doesn't conform to any particular definition within The United States. A search of the term leads to the term "primary urban area", which is a measurement utilized in The United Kingdom. Primary urban area is a term which requires the actual visual observation of the degree of urbanization for a given city/metro. Since The US government doesn't measure population by this metric, it would only be a legitimate measurement if the demographer visually assessed each US city.
To use Minneapolis as an example, five years ago this site had the city listed at 3,500,000. That dropped to 2,700,000 three years ago. Now the city is indicated as having just over 3,000,000. The first of those three numbers comes closest to the city's CSA population. The second number comes closest to the population of the seven core counties--a number which falls well below even the MSA population.
I suspect that when it comes time to determine which statistic to utilize, a certain amount of unintentional bias arises depending upon the popularity/notoriety of a given city. Going beyond that, it is a truly daunting task to try to normalize these numbers--particularly with US cities given the vastly differing measurements of population available.
The site is in Germany and, as far as I know, is maintained by an individual who simply has a love of urban demographics. The help section does contain this statement: "If you know better population data, if you have found an error or if you have suggestions for improving the web site, please send me an e-mail. Notice: I read the e-mails not daily."
Toronto's numbers would be near 9 million if the Greater Golden Horseshoe was included, which would be more in line with the areas included in American cities.
Agreed... The Greater Golden Horshoe would be more in line with the areas reported for the large American cities on this list putting it closer to 9 million... That is indeed why it 'feels' bigger.. than cities like Philly, S.F, D.C or Boston because it simply is.
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