US cities that surprised you with their population. (live, suburbs)
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For me it were the following cities:
Orlando, FL - 270,000 ( thought it was a lot bigger).
It's due to the weird MSA rules that seem to change case by case. Orlando's "metro area" is over 4000 square miles and includes coastal areas like Daytona Beach. An MSA is supposed to entail places where residents and commerce of those outlying areas are reliant on the main component city, which is very much not the case for Orlando.
That is a good point kyle19125, the MSAs do skew the size of their core city and the area. Along with the actual city boundaries of course.
I think a good example is Columbus Ohio with 860k. I think it's ranked in the top 15 of city populations in the USA compared with Minneapolis which is somewhere in the mid 40's with a city population of 415k or so.
That is a good point kyle19125, the MSAs do skew the size of their core city and the area. Along with the actual city boundaries of course.
I think a good example is Columbus Ohio with 860k. I think it's ranked in the top 15 of city populations in the USA compared with Minneapolis which is somewhere in the mid 40's with a city population of 415k or so.
Columbus Ohio 860k why the city not on map like San Francisco same population
The city boundaries are extremely variant from city to city, which is why it makes no sense to compare them. There are some like Minneapolis, Boston, and Pittsburgh which have small city limits from historical reasons.
and then there are some like Columbus or Indianapolis or Jacksonville which basically annexed their entire county. They are technically cities, but most of the area within city boundaries were/are suburbs in built form and density. For example Columbus has 4 times the land area of Minneapolis, and is much less dense and urban. Jacksonville has FOURTEEN TIMES the land area of Minneapolis, and is far less dense and urban. You cannot compare cities by their paper boundaries and expect to get anything that makes sense.
MSAs are supposed to be standarized to use fo comparion, and are much better than using city boundaries, but of course they have their own problems. Some people like using Urbanized Area, which is really the urban + suburban areas.
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