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Just goes to show the explosive growth of the NC region. In my field of Land Development, Charlotte and Raleigh are among the hottest markets in the country for work due to how fast things are being built here and the extraordinary demand for more homes and commercial development.
Here's the Triad's numbers following the same format (if I added correctly!)
1900: 230,862
1950: 645,349
1980: 1,034,596
2000: 1,414,682
2019: 1,689,151
Interestingly, the Triad and Triangle were separated by only 2,597 people in 1900, with the Triangle being slightly more populated. By 1950, the Triad had 162,245 more people than the Triangle. By 1980, that difference grew to the Triad +269,405. Even through the 2000 Census, the Triad was still more populated, though the difference had shrunk to 102,204. 19 years later, the Triangle is +390,536. That's nearly a 500,000 swing in 19 years.
You can really see the manufacturing boom and bust in these numbers.
Here's the Triad's numbers following the same format (if I added correctly!)
1900: 230,862
1950: 645,349
1980: 1,034,596
2000: 1,414,682
2019: 1,689,151
Interestingly, the Triad and Triangle were separated by only 2,597 people in 1900, with the Triangle being slightly more populated. By 1950, the Triad had 162,245 more people than the Triangle. By 1980, that difference grew to the Triad +269,405. Even through the 2000 Census, the Triad was still more populated, though the difference had shrunk to 102,204. 19 years later, the Triangle is +390,536. That's nearly a 500,000 swing in 19 years.
You can really see the manufacturing boom and bust in these numbers.
I'm honestly most surprised to see that the Triad was still more populated than the Triangle as recently as 2000.
I'm honestly most surprised to see that the Triad was still more populated than the Triangle as recently as 2000.
Agreed! It is pretty surprising, and the Triad's lead in 2000 would not have been the case had both Harnett and Lee Counties not been moved from the Triangle's CSA to Fayetteville's. Nonetheless, the physical size of the Triad and Triangle are more similar now than the were prior to realignment. The Triangle is actually a bit smaller, 94% the size of the Triad, but it's a much more apples to apples comparison than either of them would be to the other CSAs/MSAs in the state.
1 Charlotte 912,096
2 Raleigh 483,579
3 Greensboro 301,094
4 Durham 287,865
5 Winston-Salem 250,765
6 Fayetteville 213,475
7 Cary 174,762
8 Wilmington 126,000
9 High Point 114,227
10 Concord 100,639
11 Greenville 94,822
12 Asheville 93,350
13 Gastonia 78,049
14 Jacksonville 71,758
15 Apex 70,182
16 Chapel Hill 65,419
17 Huntersville 59,870
18 Burlington 55,996
19 Rocky Mount 53,302
20 Kannapolis 52,983
21 Wilson 49,819
22 Wake Forest 48,841
23 Hickory 41,547
24 Indian Trail 41,524
25 Mooresville 40,600
I give Charlotte 2 years and I will be over a mil
I give Raleigh 3 years and it will be over 500,000
Greensboro officially surpasses 300,000
Concord becomes the 10th city in NC to surpass 100,000
Greenville and Ashville are in a neck and neck race, both growing at similar rates
Wake Forest makes a huge jump into the top 25
1 Charlotte 912,096
2 Raleigh 483,579
3 Greensboro 301,094
4 Durham 287,865
5 Winston-Salem 250,765
6 Fayetteville 213,475
7 Cary 174,762
8 Wilmington 126,000
9 High Point 114,227
10 Concord 100,639
11 Greenville 94,822
12 Asheville 93,350
13 Gastonia 78,049
14 Jacksonville 71,758
15 Apex 70,182
16 Chapel Hill 65,419
17 Huntersville 59,870
18 Burlington 55,996
19 Rocky Mount 53,302
20 Kannapolis 52,983
21 Wilson 49,819
22 Wake Forest 48,841
23 Hickory 41,547
24 Indian Trail 41,524
25 Mooresville 40,600
I give Charlotte 2 years and I will be over a mil
I give Raleigh 3 years and it will be over 500,000
Greensboro officially surpasses 300,000
Concord becomes the 10th city in NC to surpass 100,000
Greenville and Ashville are in a neck and neck race, both growing at similar rates
Wake Forest makes a huge jump into the top 25
Where did these numbers come from? I didn't think that the Census was out with municipalities yet.
If you add up the numbers of Raleigh, Durham, and Cary it comes to about 946,206 – which ends up being a bit more than Charlotte.
There are a lot of people in the Triangle and it's probably way higher than that once you factor in Apex, Morrisville, Holly Springs, etc. Charlotte has a lot of people fer sure, but it's hard to make an apples-apples comparison when you start looking at the bigger picture.
I always hate these kind of comparisons for this reason. It's impossible to directly compare things.
If you add up the numbers of Raleigh, Durham, and Cary it comes to about 946,206 – which ends up being a bit more than Charlotte.
There are a lot of people in the Triangle and it's probably way higher than that once you factor in Apex, Morrisville, Holly Springs, etc. Charlotte has a lot of people fer sure, but it's hard to make an apples-apples comparison when you start looking at the bigger picture.
I always hate these kind of comparisons for this reason. It's impossible to directly compare things.
That is an invalid comparison. You could slash a lot of land in Charlotte and replace it with Gastonia, Concord, and/or Rock Hill
Adding Raleigh, Durham and Cary is carving out the most populated areas. Maybe if city limits sizes could magically be redrawn, maybe Cary wouldn’t be in Raleigh city limits.
What if Raleigh’s city limits took over all of Wake County except Cary. That would put Raleigh at 797 sq. Miles with a population of around 940,000 vs. Charlotte with 886,000 at 310 sq. Miles.
So it’s not an ideal comparison to compare Raleigh to Charlotte population wise just as it’s not ideal to add up the triangle cities and compare to Charlotte.
If you were to push the Charlotte city limits North a few miles and to the east while maintaining its same city limits, you’d add Huntersville, Matthews, Concord, Mint Hill, Weddington and Indian Trail and I imagine the population would be a lot higher.
But you’re totally right. These comparisons are hard if not impossible to find an apples to apples comparison.
Raleigh and it’s immediate suburbs (Cary, Wake Forest, Apex, Morrisville, Garner, Knightdale, Holly Springs) are roughly the same as Charlotte proper in area and population. The difference is Charlotte secondary ring of counties is bigger than Raleigh’s.
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