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I skipped 1640-1850, I wanted to start in the decade where the likes of Chicago & Los Angeles started making their debut in top 20. I'll bold the cities that remained (top 10 then to top 10 now). In red will be all new comers from 1850 to 2010. Oh and also, from 1970 point onwards the metropolitan land area stays the exact same for all decades starting in 1970. So that's what their populations 1970 to present day would look like with the land boundaries they have today.
This thread also took me a while to put together. Please, enjoy and share thoughts!
1850: 01. New York: 650,000
02. Philadelphia: 405,000
03. Boston: 308,000
04. Baltimore: 179,000
05. Cincinnati: 133,000
06. New Orleans: 123,000
07. Albany: 107,000
08. Saint Louis: 95,000
09. Pittsburgh: 86,000
10. Buffalo: 80,000
...... 17. Chicago: 40,000 (Chicago's first appearance in the top 20)
Valentro, how did you calculate metropolitan area populations, beyond the central cities, for the earlier years? If I'm remembering correctly, the Census didn't start publishing metro area populations until 1920 or 1930.
Los Angeles did not come into the picture until 1930. I guess the car, railways and planes made that place much more accessible, and people everywhere who wanted to enjoy the weather and natural beauty could finally get there. Plus that coincides with the rise of Detroit, the motor city.
Chicago did not come into the picture until around 1890. Both NYC and Chicago exploded from that point on. I wonder what caused that. I know NYC was getting a whole influx of euro immigrants, but what about Chicago.
Boston and Philly had steady growth up until 1930. I guess with advent of transportation technology, any that could must have tried to leave those two cities or went elsewhere.
Los Angeles did not come into the picture until 1930. I guess the car, railways and planes made that place much more accessible, and people everywhere who wanted to enjoy the weather and natural beauty could finally get there. Plus that coincides with the rise of Detroit, the motor city.
Chicago did not come into the picture until around 1890. Both NYC and Chicago exploded from that point on. I wonder what caused that. I know NYC was getting a whole influx of euro immigrants, but what about Chicago.
Boston and Philly had steady growth up until 1930. I guess with advent of transportation technology, any that could must have tried to leave those two cities or went elsewhere.
Chicago was getting a big influx of whites (mostly Czeck and Polish) around 1890. Good job opportunities in a booming industrial city with good geographical location.
Chicago got a massive southern black influx from 1915-1930, a large mexican influx in the 90s/00s and is now getting more asian immigration (Korean, Chinese, Indian, Filipino) than mexican/hispanic or european. There are now actually 2 chinatowns (1 is unofficial) in the city. It'll be the asians that'll put it over the top to "mega-city" status.
Los Angeles did not come into the picture until 1930. I guess the car, railways and planes made that place much more accessible, and people everywhere who wanted to enjoy the weather and natural beauty could finally get there. Plus that coincides with the rise of Detroit, the motor city.
Chicago did not come into the picture until around 1890. Both NYC and Chicago exploded from that point on. I wonder what caused that. I know NYC was getting a whole influx of euro immigrants, but what about Chicago.
Boston and Philly had steady growth up until 1930. I guess with advent of transportation technology, any that could must have tried to leave those two cities or went elsewhere.
The Midwest exploded from the mid/late 1800's through the 1950's/1960's with manufacturing, agriculture, population growth. Chicago was hands down the transportation hub of the country, and was the main outlet for everything coming from the east and everything going off to the west into the new areas of the USA at that point. It was kinda the "outpost" for a long time for all areas to the west and south - like St Louis in the early 1800's with steamboats. Once railroads came and they all centered on Chicago, it took over from St. Louis which thrived in steamboats on the Mississippi. Look what railroads did to the USA, probably the most overlooked and biggest reasons for the USA's amazing climb from the 1870's through the 1920's. Chicago was the heartbeat of all that.
With the transportation came the industry and the people to work those jobs. Process all the livestock and products coming from the Midwest to the population centers out east, and get goods and people from the east and transport them to the Midwest.
By the 1950's and the advent of interstates and the sending of industry overseas, you can easily see how that impacted Chicago. The metro area barely grew by a few hundred thousand people over the course of 20 years. By the 1990's though the city had basically shed off a large part of the industry and replaced it as a tech and white collar/finance hub. Then you see the basically 1 million growth over the 1990's, and the growth in the 2000's which was actually impacted quite a bit by the reverse migration of african americans. Chicago lost 200,000 peope in the city during the 2000's, and 180,000 of those were black people.
At this point the metro went from explosive growth to decline to modest growth/stability. Aside from financial issues due to unions/pensions/state corruption, the metro area is quite stable and healthy. It's not a boom city, but it doesn't have to be. I've noticed that people tend to think if you're not pulling Dallas or Phoenix growth all the time then something's "wrong".
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