The cities with a million people

In 1898 the boroughs of NYC merged to form one city. There were three mega cities in America: NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia all well over a million people, and fourth place city was less than half the population of PHL.

In the 1920's both Los Angeles and Detroit passed 1 million people. Detroit would be the only city to drop out of the million population club in the early 1990's.

In the 1950's Los Angeles became more populous than Philadelphia .
In the 1980's Houston became more populous than Philadelphia and Los Angeles became more populous than Chicago to become the new 2nd city.

The census bureau recently announced that Phoenix with over 4X the area of Philadelphia is the latest city to pass PHL in population. Inevitably San Antonio and San Diego will follow, then probably Dallas pushing PHL to 9th place.

2016 population estimates - square miles
8,537,673 New York 303
3,976,322 Los Angeles 469
2,704,958 Chicago 228
2,303,482 Houston 600
1,615,017 Phoenix 517
1,567,872 Philadelphia 134
1,492,510 San Antonio 461
1,406,630 San Diego 325
1,317,929 Dallas 341
1,025,350 San Jose 177
947,890 Austin 322
880,619 Jacksonville 747
870,887 San Francisco 46

I'm more interested in the populations of the "greater metro area" of each city. For example, Los Angeles would be much bigger if you included all the neighboring cities like Long Beach.

Given what I'm sued to, a "city" with under 1 million people is really a town.

Quote: Wizard

I'm more interested in the populations of the "greater metro area" of each city.

"Urban Areas" have no respect for any municipal, county or state boundary. They simply have a minimum density and they keep going until they reach that minimum density.

The total square miles are often more than 10X the area of the incorporated city itself. The largest

If you make a list the 12 urban areas with population over 3 million, you don't have San Antonio, and San Diego which tend to incorporate most of their urban area into the city limits. Miami, Boston, Atlanta, and Washington DC are relatively small incorporated cities with much larger urban areas.

18,351,295 New York--Newark, NY—NJ—CT 3,450
12,150,996 Los Angeles--Long Beach--Anaheim, CA 1,736
8,608,208 Chicago, IL—IN 2,443
5,502,379 Miami, FL 1,239
5,441,567 Philadelphia, PA—NJ—DE—MD 1,981
5,121,892 Dallas--Fort Worth--Arlington, TX 1,779
4,944,332 Houston, TX 1,660
4,586,770 Washington, DC—VA—MD 1,322
4,515,419 Atlanta, GA 2,645
4,181,019 Boston, MA—NH—RI 1,874
3,734,090 Detroit, MI 1,337
3,629,114 Phoenix--Mesa, AZ 1,146.6

A slightly larger estimate of a greater city is Combined Metropolitan statistical areas which does respect county boundaries.


Mexico City is still smaller than ten urban areas in Asia.

Quote: Pacomartin

"Urban Areas" have no respect for any municipal, county or state boundary. They simply have a minimum density and they keep going until they reach that minimum density.

However, such boundaries can present administrative and financing problems.
North Kansas City has a major industrial and commercial tax base for its very few residents.

Long Beach, CA and Fullerton, CA are often referred to as Edge Cities and have their own vibrant economies distinct from their surrounding areas.

Phoenix has several neighboring cities but all traffic lights are coordinated and no individual city can veto anything.

City and county bodies often act at different speeds: I've mentioned the railroad tracks that Los Angeles tore up but had to leave at road crossings because of different administrative bodies. Also, freeway lanes can be built with 'federal' funds but a traffic light near the exit may be the real cause of congestion. Local authorities would rather spend millions on an exit lane than zilch on changing the timing of the traffic signal.

Philadelphia at one time had headline making street crimes and house squatting but I think its going thru a revival now with all its breweries and restaurants and urban revitalization.

A lot of it is simple bragging rights. At the dawn of the country there were only a dozen urban areas with population over 5000.
1 New York city, NY *..................... 33,131
2 Philadelphia city, PA *................. 28,522
3 Boston town, MA *....................... 18,320
4 Charleston city, SC..................... 16,359
5 Baltimore town, MD...................... 13,503
6 Northern Liberties township, PA *....... 9,913
7 Salem town, MA.......................... 7,921
8 Newport town, RI........................ 6,716
9 Providence town, RI *................... 6,380
10t Marblehead town, MA..................... 5,661
10t Southwark district, PA *................ 5,661
12 Gloucester town, MA..................... 5,317

Urban areas were defined as having population over 2500

Philadelphia likes to claim it was the largest city in the new country as "Northern Liberties" would be included in the city limits in 1855. Brooklyn wouldn't exist as a town for another 20 years

Philadelphia (city and count were merged in 1855) eventually be eclipsed as the second city by Chicago in 1890, a title that Chicago still uses despite being passed in population by Los Angeles in the early 1980's.

Meanwhile, Chicago was the only major U.S. city to lose population from 2015 to 2016