Top 200 Most Influential Urban Areas in the USA (NYC, metro, live)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Just noting, some of your comments are looking at things from a US centric view. International influence doesn't always align with national influence. Nashville has a way stronger national presence than Birmingham, but Bham is ranked higher here and it's understandable as to why.
Bham has a lot of quiet industries that work internationally. It has a lot of private mining companies like Drummond or Vulcan Materials that mine in places like Colombia or Mexico. Likewise, it has a lot of major construction companies considering the area's size and growth rate, but these companies get major building projects like building embassies overseas (Or that protested police training area that being built in Atlanta). Likewise, Birmingham does grow companies large, but small enough to be enticing to acquire. So it regularly has businesses bought up not only across the country, but across the globe as well (Protective Life, for example, is a subsidiary of Japan's Dai-ichi Life). Southern Company is technically headquartered in Atlanta, but it's practically split with Birmingham, and the parts in Birmingham do tend to be less "sexy," but involve a lot of international consulting.
It also hurts Bham that its local economy is a bit opaque. It has a large number of private businesses that pretty comparable to it's publicly traded ones (EBSCO, O'Neal, McWane, etc). On top of that, the job market tend to favor high benefits over high wages ($60K-$70k jobs with the benefits packages at some of the larger businesses would be preferable to equivalent six figure contractor jobs).
hate to say it, but... i gotta believe that's Birmingham, UK ranked that high. not us haha.
hate to say it, but... i gotta believe that's Birmingham, UK ranked that high. not us haha.
Nope, that's Birmingham "North America" ranked at 246. Birmingham UK is 116.\
Edit: Here's a source. Note that the source is Chinese. If there's a country that's going to "overvalue" claiming mineral rights, it's China. For most countries, I don't think Bham would rank that high.
After over two years of research and updates, below is my list of the Top 200 Most Influential Urban
21. Pittsburgh
22. Cleveland
23. Kansas City
24. Cincinnati
25. Las Vegas
26. Austin
27. Sacramento
28. Milwaukee
29. Columbus
30. Indianapolis
31. Tampa
32. Orlando
33. Charlotte
34. Nashville
35. Raleigh
36. San Antonio
37. New Orleans
38. Richmond
39. Honolulu
40. Salt Lake City
We have spent a lot of time on the top 15, although a majority would agree on the same 15 cities and some general order so I wanna give the national cities some love.
I think there's much less agreement in this group.
Pittsburgh - is one of my top 10 cities in the US and I am always hoping for a resurgence but I have to admit that it is not going to happen. Pittsburgh used to be a top 10 city, and I know OP places some weight on history but I think they has it too high. Past influence has no bearing on present influence. I would put Pittsburgh no higher than 24.
Cleveland - is another of my favorites that has dropped quote a bit. I don't think the MSA gives a full picture of the Cleveland thought, and I think that between 20-25 is a good position so I agree with OP on this one.
Kansas City - is one of those big fish in a small pond Metros. They have oversized influence due to lack of major cities over a wide area. That gives them huge influence but this category is national cities and I think there are cities that are ranked lower that have more widespread influence. KC doesn’t have a top 30 GDP and it doesn't dominate key industries like others further down the list. I definitely would drop this one from 23 to closer to 30.
Cincinnati - this one is a City-Data favorite that I don't have too much fond feelings for. Although it has lost a ton of clout like Pittsburgh and Cleveland it has not been hit as hard in image here on City-Data. OP has it listed at 24 and I can't argue too much with that.
Las Vegas - is really hard to rank because it grew rapidly over the last decade or two. To add to the difficulty, Las Vegas is a dominant force in entertainment but doesn't have the economy to match. The other biggest metro among LV peers is Orlando. They are definitely the 2 biggest entertainment centers in this group, but the Orlando- Lakeland- Deltona area has the 17th largest GDP in the country while LV is 32. I cannot see how LV outranks Orlando and a handful of other cities lower on the list. I would rank LV between 30-35.
Austin- another rapid grower, but I think it's power has caught up to its hype. It's GDP outranks bigger metros such as Tampa, STL, Portland. That last one I should have included in the discussion. Austin matches Portland on every level and I would keep those 2 as close as possible. I don't think Austin is ranked too low so Portland must be ranked too high. Austin and Portland should be somewhere in the mid 20s.
Sacramento - disappoints me in relation to other cities on the list. However, it is the capital of the biggest state and so I would rank it in the early 30s
Milwaukee - is no longer a top 30 city. Spots like Orlando, Raleigh, Nashville have surpassed Milwaukee in influence. Milwaukee should be no higher than 35.
Columbus and Indianapolis - I am scratching my head think how on Earth is Columbus and Indie ranked higher than Tampa, Orlando, Nashville, Raleigh and Charlotte? I wouldn't rank either in the top 30.
Tampa- is easily a top 25 metro. It is the biggest among this group of cities and the greater Tampa area is around 4M. It's economy also puts it in the top 25 range. I would put Tampa close to Austin and Portland.
Orlando - same with Tampa.
Charlotte- ranking Charlotte at 33 is probably tge biggest miscarriage of Justice on the list. It outranks Portland, Orlando and Austin so the likes of Columbus, Milwaukee and Indie ranking higher sounds like an April's foll trick. I would bump up Charlotte to top 20.
Nashville- is a cultural powerhouse and rapidly growing in other industries. Somewhere near 30 is good.
Raleigh - OP ranks Raleigh with Durham as it should be. Like Cleveland the greater area gives a better representation of than the metro. The Area is greatly underestimated though. Growing area for Research/Tech. I would bump it to top 30.
San Antonio - shares a state with Houston, DFW and Austin. The competition is beyond stiff. I think OP got the general ranking right.
New Orleans - one of my favorite cities but I am torn. It is one of the top 10 cities for international trade, but it may still be ranked too high.
Richmond and Honolulu- unfortunately has dropped out of the Top 40.
Salt Lake City- this one has been solid the last few decades and I would bump it up over some of those midwest cities.
My new top 40 would be:
Internationally Industry Leaders
1. New York
2. Los Angeles
3. Chicago
4. Washington
5. San Francisco
6. Boston
7. Houston
Internationally Influential
8. Dallas-Fort Worth
9. Atlanta
10. Miami
11. Philadelphia
12. Seattle
13. Detroit
Nationally Influential
14. Minneapolis
15. Phoenix
16. Denver
17. San Diego
18. Baltimore
19. Charlotte
20. St. Louis
31. Las Vegas
32. Salt Lake City
33. Sacramento
34. Columbus
35. Indianapolis
36. San Antonio
37. Milwaukee
38. New Orleans
39. Hartford
40. Norfolk/ Virginia Beach
Status:
"See My Blog Entries for my Top 500 Most Important USA Cities"
(set 10 days ago)
Location: Harrisburg, PA
1,051 posts, read 978,865 times
Reputation: 1406
Quote:
Originally Posted by atadytic19
We have spent a lot of time on the top 15, although a majority would agree on the same 15 cities and some general order so I wanna give the national cities some love.
I think there's much less agreement in this group.
Pittsburgh - is one of my top 10 cities in the US and I am always hoping for a resurgence but I have to admit that it is not going to happen. Pittsburgh used to be a top 10 city, and I know OP places some weight on history but I think they has it too high. Past influence has no bearing on present influence. I would put Pittsburgh no higher than 24.
Cleveland - is another of my favorites that has dropped quote a bit. I don't think the MSA gives a full picture of the Cleveland thought, and I think that between 20-25 is a good position so I agree with OP on this one.
Kansas City - is one of those big fish in a small pond Metros. They have oversized influence due to lack of major cities over a wide area. That gives them huge influence but this category is national cities and I think there are cities that are ranked lower that have more widespread influence. KC doesn’t have a top 30 GDP and it doesn't dominate key industries like others further down the list. I definitely would drop this one from 23 to closer to 30.
Cincinnati - this one is a City-Data favorite that I don't have too much fond feelings for. Although it has lost a ton of clout like Pittsburgh and Cleveland it has not been hit as hard in image here on City-Data. OP has it listed at 24 and I can't argue too much with that.
Las Vegas - is really hard to rank because it grew rapidly over the last decade or two. To add to the difficulty, Las Vegas is a dominant force in entertainment but doesn't have the economy to match. The other biggest metro among LV peers is Orlando. They are definitely the 2 biggest entertainment centers in this group, but the Orlando- Lakeland- Deltona area has the 17th largest GDP in the country while LV is 32. I cannot see how LV outranks Orlando and a handful of other cities lower on the list. I would rank LV between 30-35.
Austin- another rapid grower, but I think it's power has caught up to its hype. It's GDP outranks bigger metros such as Tampa, STL, Portland. That last one I should have included in the discussion. Austin matches Portland on every level and I would keep those 2 as close as possible. I don't think Austin is ranked too low so Portland must be ranked too high. Austin and Portland should be somewhere in the mid 20s.
Sacramento - disappoints me in relation to other cities on the list. However, it is the capital of the biggest state and so I would rank it in the early 30s
Milwaukee - is no longer a top 30 city. Spots like Orlando, Raleigh, Nashville have surpassed Milwaukee in influence. Milwaukee should be no higher than 35.
Columbus and Indianapolis - I am scratching my head think how on Earth is Columbus and Indie ranked higher than Tampa, Orlando, Nashville, Raleigh and Charlotte? I wouldn't rank either in the top 30.
Tampa- is easily a top 25 metro. It is the biggest among this group of cities and the greater Tampa area is around 4M. It's economy also puts it in the top 25 range. I would put Tampa close to Austin and Portland.
Orlando - same with Tampa.
Charlotte- ranking Charlotte at 33 is probably tge biggest miscarriage of Justice on the list. It outranks Portland, Orlando and Austin so the likes of Columbus, Milwaukee and Indie ranking higher sounds like an April's foll trick. I would bump up Charlotte to top 20.
Nashville- is a cultural powerhouse and rapidly growing in other industries. Somewhere near 30 is good.
Raleigh - OP ranks Raleigh with Durham as it should be. Like Cleveland the greater area gives a better representation of than the metro. The Area is greatly underestimated though. Growing area for Research/Tech. I would bump it to top 30.
San Antonio - shares a state with Houston, DFW and Austin. The competition is beyond stiff. I think OP got the general ranking right.
New Orleans - one of my favorite cities but I am torn. It is one of the top 10 cities for international trade, but it may still be ranked too high.
Richmond and Honolulu- unfortunately has dropped out of the Top 40.
Salt Lake City- this one has been solid the last few decades and I would bump it up over some of those midwest cities.
My new top 40 would be:
Internationally Industry Leaders
1. New York
2. Los Angeles
3. Chicago
4. Washington
5. San Francisco
6. Boston
7. Houston
Internationally Influential
8. Dallas-Fort Worth
9. Atlanta
10. Miami
11. Philadelphia
12. Seattle
13. Detroit
Nationally Influential
14. Minneapolis
15. Phoenix
16. Denver
17. San Diego
18. Baltimore
19. Charlotte
20. St. Louis
31. Las Vegas
32. Salt Lake City
33. Sacramento
34. Columbus
35. Indianapolis
36. San Antonio
37. Milwaukee
38. New Orleans
39. Hartford
40. Norfolk/ Virginia Beach
Superb list and analysis.
Here are some of my takes on Charlotte, Milwaukee, Tampa, and Orlando, on your list.
Yes, Charlotte at #33 was a major oversight on my original list. I agree with your updated placement of Charlotte, and have corrected my original oversight (see Blog Entries:1 for my live, current list) - I would list Charlotte at #20, up from #33 on my original list. Personally, however, I would not put Charlotte above St. Louis as you did. STL has an oversized "gravitational well" by nature of being the largest city in a massively large radius (the nearest major cities are Chicago, Kansas City, Indianapolis, and Memphis - which is a hefty-sized range, considering Illinois is very long state, central Indiana is a good distance away from Missouri, Kansas City sits on the Kansas border, and Memphis sits on the border with Mississippi).
I guess I got too hung up on two things on my original list RE: Charlotte - first that the 2020 Census still breaks up Charlotte as an urban area (which, I disagree with). Urban area populations: Charlotte 1,379,873, Concord 278,612, Gastonia 176,897, Rock Hill SC 218,443 (Total 2,053,825). Secondly, that Raleigh seems to have "shortened the gap" it has with Charlotte in many people's views (based on some polls I did). Since I cannot justify Raleigh anywhere in the top 20, I chose dropped Charlotte. The reality is, Charlotte still has a decent (albeit shrinking?) gap over Raleigh. I find this to be an interesting situation, as it is quite uncommon (but not impossible) for a primate city to be dethroned/overtaken within its state a-la Memphis/Nashville (perhaps could this happen to Charlotte in the super long-term/coming decades - especially given that North Carolina is a fast growing and dynamic state)
I rank Milwaukee so high for a couple of reasons. First, the Census is unduly harsh on MKE - breaking Kenosha and Racine off of it... which seems... unfair to an extent. Urban area populations: Milwaukee (1,306,795), Racine (134,877), Kenosha (125,865). Second, Milwaukee has a ton of history, a unique national image (beer/brewing hub), and serves an important role as a port/manufacturing center. Much of my list is about "relativity" - i.e. where cities are ranked in relation to each other. One thing that really sticks out to me is: the state of Wisconsin has a larger (albeit slightly larger) population than Minnesota does. So, how does Minneapolis rank all the way up at #14 on the list (where I would also place it), and yet, Milwaukee ranks so low on many lists? Wisconsin does have other cities like Madison, Green Bay, Appleton, and some small cities/large towns like La Cross, Eau Claire, Wausau, Oshkosh, Sheboygan. But so does Minnesota - Duluth, Rochester, St. Cloud, Mankato. Looking at a population density map, the rural areas of Minnesota do appear to be less dense / more remote than Wisconsin, but not dramatically so. So, what gives? How is Milwaukee so far below Minneapolis? I am not suggesting they are peers. I am just wondering - why such a massive gap (Mpls @ #14 and MKE @ #37)? I mean if we assume Madison would come in somewhere at #60 on the list, this still does not account for the major spread. Let's assume hypothetically Madison did sit next to Milwaukee vis-a-vis the Twin Cities' configuration - would Milwaukee suddenly jump into the teens in our national ranking?) Minnesota listed as 71.9% urban, whereas Wisconsin is 67.1% urban according to the 2020 census. So they really are not that markedly different. I should consider starting a thread on this because I am genuinely curious. Maybe Wisconsin just gets sucked into the Chicago sweeping gravity well a bit too much? Perhaps someone could enlighten me about these two states and their differences.
Orlando and Tampa, I tend to rank them lower than they would be ranked based on their populations, for various reasons. Tampa is a somewhat disjointed urban area the way it is geographically situated with its wide Bay area, 5-10 mile long bridges, its peninsula layout, and many inlets (Tampa is also a multi-nodal urban area shared with St. Petersburg and Clearwater, which also tends to dim its relative importance). Orlando, as a metro area, seems to suffer from a large amount of sprawl/suburban development, is pocked with by hundreds of lakes. Also, Orlando, like Las Vegas, is sort of focused/shoehorned on the tourism/entertainment industry. Both Tampa and Orlando, as newer cities, have very underwhelming downtowns/cores for their respective population sizes. They are not as strong in history (which, I again admit I am biased toward in my rankings).
I like how you upgraded Detroit to Internationally Influential. I agree. I also like how you differentiated the top 7 as Internationally Influential-Industry Leaders.
I disagree with placing Norfolk above Richmond. Doing some interesting research on this, I found the opposite (though they remain very close). Richmond is more urban, more centrally located along the I-95 corridor and with strong connections to Washington DC, had a larger role in history, and serves as more of hub for politics and business, obviously. Norfolk is also at the disadvantage with its topography/layout, being very multi-nodal, and overall "newer" in terms of its overeall development (specifically Virginia Beach, which is a large chunk of the metro area, and very suburban/sprawl oriented in nature). As an aside, I strongly prefer the name Norfolk over Virginia Beach, as Norfolk is the true urban and centralized core of the area.
I am struggling to place SLC any higher on my list. It just does not seem to have cohesively absorbed Provo and Ogden. I feel I need more insights on this.
What is your reasoning for Hartford to be ranked so highly at #39? I would probably have it a bit lower in the upper 40s.
Austin seems a bit high on your list. I will admit, I do not accept the hype as much and take a much more conservative approach with Austin. I know it is the darling wonder. But I tend to be more reserved with it. #29 seems fair on my list (per my Blog Entries). Ranking Austin tends to start flame wars - some people want it in the top 20 it seems. I will settle for barely top 30 for now, and even at that I think it is generous.
But I digress. Yours is a solid list, well done indeed. I REALLY appreciate you looking downlist and giving some great feedback. I welcome others to do the same. I would also encourage you to look at the next group of cities 41-60 maybe and see if there are any glaring errors. #60 is my cut-off for Nationally Influential, so I would be curious on your input there as well. My current iteration (does not match my OP):
We have spent a lot of time on the top 15, although a majority would agree on the same 15 cities and some general order so I wanna give the national cities some love.
I think there's much less agreement in this group.
[exegesis deleted]
My new top 40 would be:
Internationally Industry Leaders
1. New York
2. Los Angeles
3. Chicago
4. Washington
5. San Francisco
6. Boston
7. Houston
Internationally Influential
8. Dallas-Fort Worth
9. Atlanta
10. Miami
11. Philadelphia
12. Seattle
13. Detroit
Nationally Influential
14. Minneapolis
15. Phoenix
16. Denver
17. San Diego
18. Baltimore
19. Charlotte
20. St. Louis
31. Las Vegas
32. Salt Lake City
33. Sacramento
34. Columbus
35. Indianapolis
36. San Antonio
37. Milwaukee
38. New Orleans
39. Hartford
40. Norfolk/ Virginia Beach
Actually, after reading your exegesis regarding my hometown, I'd agree with your dropping it to #29. Most of the other cities between it and St. Louis have strong associations with specific industries (either legacy, as with Pittsburgh and steelmaking, or more recent, as with Austin and high-tech) or have notable Fortune 500 company HQs in them. Kansas City's one entry on that list got swallowed up by Oracle last year, and even when I was growing up, it was known more as a "branch plant" than a headquarters city — though I have remarked that, between Hallmark Cards and Russell Stover Candies (both privately held, family-owned firms, or Russell Stover was before the family that owned it sold it to Lindt), Kansas City owns Valentine's Day. It was even a runner-up as a cowtown: its stockyards were the nation's second largest after Chicago's.
One of the branch plants, however, belongs to the Federal Government. That IMO gives the city a bit more economic heft than it otherwise might have (even if it doesn't do much for the GDP).
The thing I find a little more interesting is that you left daylight between it, Columbus and Indianapolis. I haven't checked the GDP figures for the latter two, but population-wise, all three are next-door neighbors. And the latter two are the capitals of their respective states. I will allow, however, that historically, Columbus was the third of Ohio's 3 C's, and Indy's economic rise has been relatively recent in origin. KC trades on a deeper and longer legacy.
Here are some of my takes on Charlotte, Milwaukee, Tampa, and Orlando, on your list.
Thanks. I might look at 40- 60 this weekend.
For StL I agree with you, and I was about to place it higher than Charlotte when I was reviewing my list but I stopped. St Louis is still a great city but I don't see it climbing any rungs anytime soon while Charlotte is continuing to grow. I figured that if Charlotte isn't above StL already it is inevitable that it will be soon. So I let it be.
As for its relation to Raleigh, I don't think it diminishes Charlotte at all. Like Florida and Texas, NC has multiple metros that are rising together.
With Milwaukee I disagree with your approach. Minneapolis is that far ahead of Milwaukee because Minneapolis is a major city with a ton of companies and an expansive economy, while Milwaukee is not. MSP has a GDP that is over 300B. That is larger than Phoenix, the 10th largest metro. MSP is competing with Detroit for the 2nd city in the midwest and their GDPs are almost identical. Milwaukee on the orher hand has a GDP of 100B and doesn't have the ton of F500 companies that MSP has. I do not share the view that MSP and Milwaukee are not that different. I think MSP is a tier or 2 above
I do agree with you on Austin. It's crazy. I was looking at my own list and I could not believe it. I tried looking at it on multiple ways to drop Austin but in the end I could not drop it without dropping Portland, Pittsburgh, Raleigh and I just couldn't find cities to rank higher. Austin even has a higher GDP than Tampa and St Louis, and it is one of the fastest growing major cities so know matter how hard I tried handicapping it, I just couldn't rank it lower.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarketStEl
Actually, after reading your exegesis regarding my hometown, I'd agree with your dropping it to #29. Most of the other cities between it and St. Louis have strong associations with specific industries (either legacy, as with Pittsburgh and steelmaking, or more recent, as with Austin and high-tech) or have notable Fortune 500 company HQs in them. Kansas City's one entry on that list got swallowed up by Oracle last year, and even when I was growing up, it was known more as a "branch plant" than a headquarters city — though I have remarked that, between Hallmark Cards and Russell Stover Candies (both privately held, family-owned firms, or Russell Stover was before the family that owned it sold it to Lindt), Kansas City owns Valentine's Day. It was even a runner-up as a cowtown: its stockyards were the nation's second largest after Chicago's.
The thing I find a little more interesting is that you left daylight between it, Columbus and Indianapolis. I haven't checked the GDP figures for the latter two, but population-wise, all three are next-door neighbors.
I am too straightforward sometimes and it comes off as harsh, but in reality, any city on my top 40 list are phenomenal cities. I think there is stiff competition in the 20-30 range and I think that if KC had more aggressive neighbors I would not have dropped it on the list. KC means a lot to a large area of the country. For me that is a double edge sword in that it gives it huge regional influence but I can't judge how it would do if it had a San Antonio or Tampa just down the street.
With Columbus and Indianapolis, those two have slightly larger GDPs than KC, but I ranked KC higher because KC has a bigger cultural impact
With Milwaukee I disagree with your approach. Minneapolis is that far ahead of Milwaukee because Minneapolis is a major city with a ton of companies and an expansive economy, while Milwaukee is not. MSP has a GDP that is over 300B. That is larger than Phoenix, the 10th largest metro. MSP is competing with Detroit for the 2nd city in the midwest and their GDPs are almost identical. Milwaukee on the orher hand has a GDP of 100B and doesn't have the ton of F500 companies that MSP has. I do not share the view that MSP and Milwaukee are not that different. I think MSP is a tier or 2 above
The MSP/Detroit economy debate is a bit misleading. Detroit's statistical areas are artificially small on paper with it's urban area being carved up. It's missing counties immediately to the south and west which cuts off $30+ billion(and 500k people) from it's GDP numbers. It also can't account for the several hundred thousand people across the river in another country that are immediately influenced by Detroit. MSP doesn't have any satellites, or international borders creating statistical complications in OMB formulas. This makes them appear closer together on paper without context.
Status:
"See My Blog Entries for my Top 500 Most Important USA Cities"
(set 10 days ago)
Location: Harrisburg, PA
1,051 posts, read 978,865 times
Reputation: 1406
Atadytic19-
I don’t disagree with your quick analysis on MSP vs Milwaukee.
I guess it is just really REALLY odd that Milwaukee comes in some much smaller than MSP. Let’s do some quick and dirty figures
Wisconsin population= 5,893,718, Minnesota is 5,706,494. Wisconsin is 67.1% urban whereas Minnesota is 71.9% urban. So Wisconsin has an urban population of 3,954,685 vs. 4,102,969 for Minnesota.
Minnesota breaks down as follows:
2,914,886 MSP
121,587 Rochester, MN
119,411 Duluth (some of this includes Wisconsin population)
117,638 St. Cloud
60,206 Mankato
Total = 3,333,728
There is some spillover from Fargo.
So 769,241 live in small towns (less than 50k urban area population, maybe in suburban parts of Minneapolis that are NOT included in the urban area population nor the rural area)?
1,306,795 Milwaukee
450,305 Madison
230,967 Appleton
224,156 Green Bay
134,877 Racine
125,865 Kenosha
105,475 Eau Claire
98,872 La Crosse (tiny bit spills into Minnesota)
77,429 Wausau
76,190 Oshkosh
74,369 Sheboygan
72,285 Janesville
63,073 Beloit (some of this includes Illinois population)
54,731 Fond du Lac
Total=3,095,389
So 859,296 live in small towns (less than 50k urban area population, maybe in suburban parts of Milwaukee that are NOT included in the urban area population nor the rural area)?
Keep in mind these figures are approximate because I did not account for urban area spillovers (which are likely quite small and some would cancel out - i.e. Duluth UA’s Wisconsin population, La Crosse UA’s Minnesota population. Other various small towns).
Also, it looks like the Census cleaned up the urban areas crossing state borders. Because I distinctly recall in 2010 Chicago included some bits in Wisconsin. Now it does not. It hard ends at the state line. Also Philadelphia included Delaware and Maryland. Also, wait did somebody touch the Wikipedia article listing the urban areas because now Wilmington DE is listed as an entity separate of Philadelphia…? Idk…
Idk, but back on topic, I guess the short answer is that Minnesota and Wisconsin are very similar states. But, Wisconsin is a bit more rural and has A LOT more small cities than Minnesota.
Minneapolis and Milwaukee are rightfully so in different tiers.
When I get a chance I will respond to your other comments.
I want to study the US Census urban area map for now. Might give me some new insights.
>50.00--Global Giant
One of the World's 5 Most Important Cities:
100.0 New York
25.0-49.9 Global City
A city of global importance, with outsized impact on the world:
44.4 Los Angeles
37.9 San Francisco Bay Area
30.4 Chicago
27.1 Washington
12.5-25.9 Major City
A city of very high importance, with significance impact outside of it's country:
21.7 Mexico City
16.7 Dallas-Fort Worth
15.5 Houston
15.3 Atlanta
14.7 Miami
14.2 Philadelphia
13.3 Seattle
6.3-12.4 Almost Major City
A city that's almost a "Major City" but slightly deficient in some regard.
9.8 Montreal
8.7 Phoenix
8.6 Detroit
8.4 San Diego
8.3 Vancouver
8.2 Denver
8.1 Minneapolis-St Paul
Also, it looks like the Census cleaned up the urban areas crossing state borders. Because I distinctly recall in 2010 Chicago included some bits in Wisconsin. Now it does not. It hard ends at the state line. Also Philadelphia included Delaware and Maryland. Also, wait did somebody touch the Wikipedia article listing the urban areas because now Wilmington DE is listed as an entity separate of Philadelphia…? Idk…
How? Wilmington looks to still be part of Philly. Though that map raises other questions. There are some suburb clusters I'm surprised aren't in the main city urban area and also don't have their own small clusters (like Warrior/Kimberley/Morris north of Birmingham; I-65 turns six lane a bit before Smoke Rise a wee bit north of here).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Sunday Special: Top 40
