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Comparing Charlotte's CSA and Raleigh's CSA is like saying inside I440 has more people than inside I277. Of course is does because 277 is a much smaller circumference than I440. Charlotte's CSA and MSA are basically the same because it takes in all the same surrounding areas of each. Raleigh's CSA and MSA don't take in the same area. Gastonia and Rock Hill are about the same distance as Durham is from Raleigh yet Durham isn't included in Raleigh's CSA where Gastonia and Rock Hill are included in both Charlotte's CSA and MSA.
I here what you are saying about Charlotte being the principle city. By that argument break up Minneapolis-St, Paul and Dallas-Ft. Worth, which they don't break up Dallas and Ft. Worth even though Raleigh and Durham are closer together than Dallas-Ft. Worth are to each other and Dallas and Ft. Worth don't cross into each others counties butting up to one another like Raleigh and Durham do. Both DFW and RDU also share airports. Raleigh CSA should include Durham/Chapel Hill but since it doesn't, compare apples to apples meaning population within like circumferences. Any other way is just fuzzy math.
Bottom line is this. Doesn't matter that Wake is larger in area or that Charlotte has annexes a lot of farm land, drop a pin in the middle of both Raleigh and Charlotte, go 40-50 miles out in circumference and for all intents and purposes they are basically the same size.
In Charlottes CSA, it - to me - feels like population falls of a cliff economically, population and educationally after around 10 miles from the Mecklenburg border with a couple pockets of Population (but still quite a large economic and educational gap)
I always assumed the Raleigh CSA was more spread even through diversity, economy and education.
Between Bank of America , Well Fargo, and Duke Energy, they take up approx. 11 million square feet of office space in uptown Charlotte. BOA takes 6 million.
Uptown has 22.9 Million sq feet of office space and when the 3 office buildings are complete it will have 25 million square feet. There are 1,141 companies in uptown, 100,000 employees in uptown.
This is why there is a big difference between downtown Raleigh and uptown Charlotte.
Raleigh Over5 Million sq. feet. of office space. 40,000 employees.
Yet more people supposedly live in downtown Raleigh than uptown Charlotte, go figure.
Jacksonville, Fl city population: 842,000
Jacksonville, Fl CSA metro population: 1,500,000.
Charlotte city population: 792,000
Charlotte CSA metro population: 2,493,040
Raleigh city population: 431,000
Raleigh CSA metro population: 2,075,126
Atlanta city population: 447,000
Atlanta CSA metro population: 6,162,195
Miami city population: 419,000
Miami CSA metro population: 5,564,635
Washington DC city population: 658,000
Washington DC CSA population: 9,443,180
Despite Charlotte being almost twice the population of Raleigh because, like Jacksonville, it annexed nearly all of it's home county, both Raleigh (Research Triangle) and Charlotte (Metrolina) are roughly the same size. Likewise though Atlanta and Miami city limits are the same size as Raleigh city limits, the Atlanta and Miami metros are over twice the size of Charlotte's metro.
The takeaway is this, city limits doesn't matter, cities can "cheat" to seem bigger than they really are, it's the CSA that's the real gauge of city's size. That said, Raleigh and Charlotte are roughly the same size.
Jacksonville, Fl city population: 842,000
Jacksonville, Fl CSA metro population: 1,500,000.
Charlotte city population: 792,000
Charlotte CSA metro population: 2,493,040
Raleigh city population: 431,000
Raleigh CSA metro population: 2,075,126
Atlanta city population: 447,000
Atlanta CSA metro population: 6,162,195
Miami city population: 419,000
Miami CSA metro population: 5,564,635
Washington DC city population: 658,000
Washington DC CSA population: 9,443,180
Despite Charlotte being almost twice the population of Raleigh because, like Jacksonville, it annexed nearly all of it's home county, both Raleigh (Research Triangle) and Charlotte (Metrolina) are roughly the same size. Likewise though Atlanta and Miami city limits are the same size as Raleigh city limits, the Atlanta and Miami metros are over twice the size of Charlotte's metro.
The takeaway is this, city limits doesn't matter, cities can "cheat" to seem bigger than they really are, it's the CSA that's the real gauge of city's size. That said, Raleigh and Charlotte are roughly the same size.
The CSA is split between a couple of anchor cities while Charlotte has Charlotte.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know Charlotte is a larger city than Charlotte....
Wake County is double the size of Mecklenburg but has a smaller population. If Raleigh and Charlotte were equal in size relative to their size, there wouldn't be a 50% discrepancy in the size of Meck VS. Wake.
But by CSA's, yeah. They're nearly the same size only separated by a population of around the size of Raleigh.
The Research Triangle is the most educated large metro in America, Raleigh and Durham specifically are #2 and #3 most educated US cities.
Source: businessinsider.com "the 25 most educated cities in America 2014."
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