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Other well known places, in comparison to "The town of Cary" (175k) that might surprise you... As in "I can't believe a suburb of Raleigh has become a peer city to these in my lifetime".
Dayton OH (140k)
Savannah GA (142k)
Bellevue WA (150k)
Jackson MS (154k)
Springfield MO (169k)
And considering Cary's growth rate, it conceivable by the 2030 census, it could surpass:
Chattanooga TN (180k)
Fort Lauderdale FL (183k)
Salt Lake City (187k)
Charlotte and Triangle area cities driving the vast majority of the state's growth as expected with some suburbs absolutely exploding in growth rate. Concord made it to 100K.
Kind of surprised to see Eastern NC performing this badly. Even Greenville and Pitt County slowed way down in growth while many nearby counties lost population. That part of the state really is dying. I've pondered whether marijuana legalization could possibly be an industry that might give some life to those areas since they also used to be big tobacco strongholds.
Charlotte and Triangle area cities driving the vast majority of the state's growth as expected with some suburbs absolutely exploding in growth rate. Concord made it to 100K.
Kind of surprised to see Eastern NC performing this badly. Even Greenville and Pitt County slowed way down in growth while many nearby counties lost population. That part of the state really is dying. I've pondered whether marijuana legalization could possibly be an industry that might give some life to those areas since they also used to be big tobacco strongholds.
Every municipality in Mecklenburg County and the core Triangle counties (Wake, Durham and Orange) except Zebulon now ranks in the top 100 cities for the state. Yes, even Wendell at number 93, Hillsborough at number 94 and Rolesville at 96, all with nearly 10,000 residents. Zebulon is at 129, but if its 55% growth continues this decade like last, it'll easily be in the top 100 as well. Rather astounding, if you ask me.
As for Eastern NC, I have a feeling it's going to take a lot more than just one industry to revitalize that region. When you're seeing population drops of more than 10% for the likes of several municipalities off major highways between Charlotte and the Triangle to the coast, such as Whiteville (off US 74), Wallace (off I-40) and Princeville and Plymouth (off US 64), to me there's an indication that there's a lot of issues such as healthcare, education, transportation and more that need to be addressed in order to attract newcomers to stay.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SGMI
Other well known places, in comparison to "The town of Cary" (175k) that might surprise you... As in "I can't believe a suburb of Raleigh has become a peer city to these in my lifetime".
Dayton OH (140k)
Savannah GA (142k)
Bellevue WA (150k)
Jackson MS (154k)
Springfield MO (169k)
And considering Cary's growth rate, it conceivable by the 2030 census, it could surpass:
Chattanooga TN (180k)
Fort Lauderdale FL (183k)
Salt Lake City (187k)
I think a couple of towns that are peers to Cary - in more than population size - are Naperville, IL and Overland Park, KS. Both of these are considered suburbs of a larger city (Chicago and Kansas City, MO, respectively) like Cary. I put them up on the Census Data Quick Facts for comparison, and there seem to be a lot of similarities:
Overland Park is the largest of the three at 197K population. Naperville is the smallest at 150K, and Cary in the middle at 175K. Naperville is farther from its primary city than the others (33 miles versus 12-13 miles for the other two), but being that Chicago is much larger than either Kansas City or Raleigh, I think it's still fairly comparable. I've never been to Naperville, so someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it is/was formed and functions as a suburb to Chicago rather than a stand-alone city.
The age distribution is very similar among all three. Naperville is slightly whiter (72%) than Cary (67%) and less black (5% vs. 9%), but otherwise very similar. Overland Park is whiter (82%) than either with a similar black population to Naperville (5%) and a lot less Asian (9% versus 19% for the other two). Both Cary and Naperville have almost double the foreign population (22% and 20%, respectively) of Overland Park (12%).
Median household income is highest in Naperville ($126K) then Cary ($105K) then OP ($86K). Median housing price is also in the same order ($417K, $356K, $276K). Education level is similar, with 68% having bachelor's degrees in both Naperville and Cary and 62% in OP.
Overland Park is the largest in land area (75 sq. miles), then Cary (54 sq. mi), then Naperville (39 sq. mi). Naperville is a bit denser than the other two (3,857 people per mile versus 3,215 for Cary and 2,635 for OP). However, Naperville went through most of its growth in the late 1900s, I believe. It grew just 5% over the last decade, while OP grew 14% and Cary grew 29%!
Thoughts? Any other large suburbs that you think are comparable to Cary?
Are there any demographic breakdowns yet of the top 50 cities in NC
Yes. Scroll down to the bottom of this article and sort the cities by ranking. Columns for Hispanic or Latino, White Non-Hispanic and Black Non-Hispanic will appear on the right side to review.
Roanoke Rapids has the same population the last 40 years
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