Metropolitan areas that have larger populations than you thought

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by strawflower

I was surprised to see that San Jose CA, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, El Paso, Oklahoma City, Fresno, Sacramento, and Raleigh have larger populations than both Minneapolis and Miami. I know these are just the populations of the cities themselves not the metro area, but it still surprised me.

San Jose was a surprise to me as well...I always thought of it as rather suburban until I visited; it really is a real live city with a skyline and everything!
Some of the FL cities surprise me...
Sarasota metro pop 680,000
Naples metro pop 315,000
Gainesville metro pop 260,000

Two other cities:

Tulsa metro pop 929,000
Omaha/Council Bluffs metro pop 850,000

[pistola916]

City proper populations mean nothing. Yes, Miami has far less residents than San Jose and/or Sacramento but Miami's metro pop far exceeds the other two.

[PDX_LAX]

Originally Posted by missionhome

The Inland Empire is very tied to L.A. and Orange County. Many people commute between the areas every day and commerce especially flows through both. The Port of Los Angeles and Inland Empire for example work together in a huge way. Goods arrive in the Port of L.A./Long Beach and goods heading East on trucks are brought to the Inland Empire, sorted, and then sent out on another truck. There are huge truck and train yards in the Inland Empire that sort goods for shipping.

Almost all the population is packed in up against L.A. and Orange County. The region flows together development wise with few natural barriers and all form "Greater L.A. or Southern California". There is a small mountain population in the San Bernardino Mountains with maybe 18,000 permanent residents.

The only really populated areas of San Bernardino and Riverside County that isn't close to L.A. is:

Palm Springs area: Desert resort communities of about 400,000 residents (they have their own television market in the Coachella Valley). Palm Springs is seen by most as distinct from Greater L.A.

There are small towns like Barstow, Ikyorkn, Needles, etc... out in the desert. But outside of the Palm Springs area and areas close to L.A., it is mainly desert.

Total land area San Bernardino County: 20,105 square miles.
Total land area Mojave Desert: 25,000 square miles (parts are in AZ and NV also)
Honestly most of the Inland Empire looks like this:


But most people live in the areas that look like this (Riverside, CA) towards L.A.

I don't mean to offend anyone, but the Inland Empire (San Berbardino specifically) seemed like and absolute ****HOLE when I was there for Rock the Bells a few weeks ago. It was so dry and flat and ugly, like something out of Mad Max. And it wasn't as connected to the rest of L.A. as I had thought - I'm pretty sure I remember driving through uninhabited desert to get there.

[Southern Soul Bro]

Visalia-Porterville, CA MSA 429,668 (I've never even heard of those towns)

Ocala, FL MSA 328,547 (didnt think ocala had a metro that large)

Ogden-Clearfield, UT MSA 541,569 (didnt think Utah had another metro outside of Provo and Salt Lake City that large)


I know this says MSA, but I see people using CSA figures....so I must say that I'm shocked that the CSA of Knoxville has over 1 million people.

I'm also shocked that the Greenville SC CSA (1,264,930) is larger than the CSAs of New Orleans (1,235,650), Birmingham (1,212,848), and Buffalo (1,203,493).

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by King_X

I'm also shocked that the Greenville SC CSA (1,264,930) is larger than the CSAs of New Orleans (1,235,650), Birmingham (1,212,848), and Buffalo (1,203,493).

NOLA's was once larger than Greenville's of course, but yep, the Upstate is over 1.2 million.

I keep forgetting that Chattanooga is over half a million in its metro now.

Jacksonville, Florida and Phoenix, Arizona!

[west336]

Richmond, VA
Grand Rapids, MI
Lansing/E.Lansing, MI
Austin, TX (grew before my eyes)
Fresno, CA


.....that's all for now, but all of them were bigger than I thought they would be/are.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by PDX_LAX

I don't mean to offend anyone, but the Inland Empire (San Berbardino specifically) seemed like and absolute ****HOLE when I was there for Rock the Bells a few weeks ago. It was so dry and flat and ugly, like something out of Mad Max. And it wasn't as connected to the rest of L.A. as I had thought - I'm pretty sure I remember driving through uninhabited desert to get there.

I actually found Riverside to be an attractive city, with some really beautiful neighborhoods in the hills above the city proper.

[Craziaskowboi]

The Inland Empire needs to urbanize itself better. I'll never forget the waves of identical-looking houses I drove past on I-15 in Rancho Cucamonga heading up into the San Gabriel Mountains.