Chicago Fun Fact: The Loop and North Lakefront Community Areas would be a City as Large as Cleveland

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by jcarlilesiu

I have to disagree. Though Chicago did annex quite a few small municipalities, the assumption that the majority of people live in chicago and not in the surrounding metro area is false.

Chicago has a population of around 3 million where as the whole Chicagoland area is nearly 11 million.

2009 estimated population of the metro area is 9.8 million. The city proper is 2.85 million.

Look at this table.

Table of United States primary census statistical areas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

All I was saying in many other metropolitan areas, the central city is a much smaller percentage compared to the rest of the metro area.

IE: San Fran is 700-800,000, while the Bay area is over 7 million in other words 1/10. The same goes for Boston and its metro area and D.C. and its metro area.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

IE: San Fran is 700-800,000, while the Bay area is over 7 million in other words 1/10. The same goes for Boston and its metro area and D.C. and its metro area.

Both of these examples are parts of coastal megalopolises. The Northeast is a unique case. It's simply the most populous area in the United States, and it's getting difficult to tell where the various MSAs and CSAs start and end. You could make the argument that it is one mult-nodal metro from Boston to D.C.--including New York, Newark, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Sure, Chicagoland is creeping closer to Milwaukee each year, and we have NE Indiana, but we will never rival the population in the Northeast Corridor--even if we extend to Indianapolis and St. Louis (pretty much impossible given the geographic distances involved).

The Bay Area is also different from Chicago, because there are three major cities acting as one metro--SF, San Jose, and Oakland. I'm not sure where the individual MSAs and the whole CSA start and end, but it is definitely one metro area. And the Silicon Valley economic engine, along with truly separate (from SF) college towns like Berkley and Palo Alto, make this a really unique place in the U.S. It's a wonderful place to live if you can afford it and don't have earthquake trouble. San Francisco is certainly the "urban heart" of the region, but the more Palo Alto and gritty Oakland can't be dicounted too much as contributors.