Metro and city population, and how big a city feels

[Billiam]

Originally Posted by Tom Lennox 70

Ogre....well.....the Washington, D.C. area has a metro population of about 3.5 million and Baltimore about 2 million.

You're stats are wrong -

the DC area has 5.3 million ,
the Baltimore area has 2,668,056

[ogre]

Originally Posted by lammius

Well, Norfolk/Tidewater and Baltimore metros aren't exactly the same size. Tidewater metro is a little under 1.7 million while Baltimore's metro is a little under 2.7 million. Furthermore, the Tidewater metro is very balkanized, consisting of more (and smaller) urban centers than the Baltimore area, and Baltimore city is far more densely populated and developed than anything in Tidewater. I think those reasons, more than any, are why Norfolk feels so much smaller than Baltimore to me.

The Tidewater area's "balkanization" points out something which could really affect this, namely, distribution of a metro area's population, as well as distribution of economic activity. It's similar to Nubianbrotha's point about the number of people who pour into Washington's core area each day. The more concentrated a city's activities, the busier that city will be in its core area. If offices and stores are spread across an entire metro area, the total level of economic activity may be similar to that found in other metros of about the same size, but no one section will seem as active and urban as the downtown of a city where most commercial functions are concentrated downtown. This might account for the large appearance of some cities, which Tom L. pointed out. If a city's activity is concentrated, that city is more likely to have many large buildings clustered together. In a city with business more spread out physically, there is less likely to be a concentrated, impressive skyline.