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Reading through some recent discussions on regional identity and centralized vs. decentralized regions, I was curious about which U.S. Metro Areas had the largest share of residents actually residing in their core city. Since I could not find any data online, I ran some numbers comparing 2020 city proper and MSA population (over 1 million pop.) to create the below list.
U.S. MSAs with Most Residents Inside City Limits:
1. Jacksonville, FL MSA: 59.13%
2. San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX MSA: 56.08%
3. Fresno, CA MSA: 53.75%
4. Tucson, AZ MSA: 52.00%
5. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA MSA: 50.65%
6. Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN MSA: 49.25%
7. Oklahoma City, OK MSA: 47.77%
8. Memphis, TN-MS-AR MSA: 47.33%
9. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-CT-PA MSA: 43.71%
10. Columbus, OH MSA: 42.35%
11. Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX MSA: 42.12%
12. Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN MSA: 42.05%
13. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA MSA: 42.05%
54. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA MSA: 8.19%
55. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL MSA: 7.20%
56. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA MSA: 6.85%
In addition, I ran the three largest Canadian cities. Toronto clocks in at 45.05%, Montreal at 41.08% and Vancouver at 25.06%. Each would rank 9th, 14th and 29th respectively among U.S. cities.
Not sure how useful this data is, but I thought it was quite interesting and decided to share. Enjoy.
One of the things illustrated here is cities expanding their footprint in their immediate area does not equal increased influence outside of that area.
Some of the most famous and influential cities are bringing up the bottom of the list.
NYC is really the lone example of expanded boundaries equalling expanded influence.
One of the things illustrated here is cities expanding their footprint in their immediate area does not equal increased influence outside of that area.
Some of the most famous and influential cities are bringing up the bottom of the list.
NYC is really the lone example of expanded boundaries equalling expanded influence.
And even with NYC, that was done in 1898, while many of these new growth cities have annexed/expanded city limits within the past 3-5 decades.
And even with NYC, that was done in 1898, while many of these new growth cities have annexed/expanded city limits within the past 3-5 decades.
Annexation helps with federal funding because they use population as a metric. If your city has 1 million people on paper instead of 400k, than you get more money to play with.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul metro is at 19.95% including St. Paul which is a core city.
So it includes every core city in its MSA's name or just the largest? Because the thread title does say live "within city limits", and lots of metros have multiple core cities. For example, it would put Hampton Roads at 48%, Las Vegas would be 40%, Dallas would be 34%, etc etc.
So it includes every core city in its MSA's name or just the largest? Because the thread title does say live "within city limits", and lots of metros have multiple core cities. For example, it would put Hampton Roads at 48%, Las Vegas would be 40%, Dallas would be 34%, etc etc.
St. Paul and Minneapolis both make up the core of the metro. St. Paul is a core city adjacent to Minneapolis and isn't a suburb. I think only the largest city is being considered but that wouldn't work for the Twin Cities. St. Paul isn't a secondary city separated by suburbs like Fort Worth or Tacoma.
Reading through some recent discussions on regional identity and centralized vs. decentralized regions, I was curious about which U.S. Metro Areas had the largest share of residents actually residing in their core city. Since I could not find any data online, I ran some numbers comparing 2020 city proper and MSA population (over 1 million pop.) to create the below list.
U.S. MSAs with Most Residents Inside City Limits:
1. Jacksonville, FL MSA: 59.13%
2. San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX MSA: 56.08%
3. Fresno, CA MSA: 53.75%
4. Tucson, AZ MSA: 52.00%
5. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA MSA: 50.65%
6. Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN MSA: 49.25%
7. Oklahoma City, OK MSA: 47.77%
8. Memphis, TN-MS-AR MSA: 47.33%
9. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-CT-PA MSA: 43.71%
10. Columbus, OH MSA: 42.35%
11. Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX MSA: 42.12%
12. Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN MSA: 42.05%
13. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA MSA: 42.05%
54. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA MSA: 8.19%
55. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL MSA: 7.20%
56. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA MSA: 6.85%
In addition, I ran the three largest Canadian cities. Toronto clocks in at 45.05%, Montreal at 41.08% and Vancouver at 25.06%. Each would rank 9th, 14th and 29th respectively among U.S. cities.
Not sure how useful this data is, but I thought it was quite interesting and decided to share. Enjoy.
For Atlanta, it's going to be very interesting at 2030 census, you could have a 7 million metro area with less than 600,000 people in the core city.
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