The country's fifth
largest city is in the desert,
according to the latest Census
Bureau estimates. And though it
is only half the size of the
next largest city, the nation's
No. 1 city in terms of
population has more than twice
as many people as its closet
rival.
Yes, New York reigns
supreme as the largest city in
the United States, with a
population of 8.2 million. The
next largest city is Los
Angeles, which has just 3.8
million residents. Chicago is
third with 2.8 million
inhabitants and Houston is
fourth with 2.1 million.
Phoenix, the
aforementioned desert city,
moved into fifth place,
according to the latest count,
moving ahead of Philadelphia.
The head count in Phoenix in
2006 was 1.5 million. In
Philadelphia, it was 1.45
million.
The switch is further
evidence of a shift in the U.S.
population that began decades
ago.
In 1910 -- nearly a
century ago -- all of the ten
most populous cities were within
approximately 500 miles of the
Canadian border. Now, seven of
the top ten and three of the top
five are in states that border
Mexico.
In another big change,
only three of the largest cities
in 1910 -- New York, Chicago and
Philadelphia -- remain on the
current list. At the same time,
three of the current top ten --
Phoenix, San Jose and San Diego
-- were not even among the top
100 largest cities 97 years ago,
while three others -- Dallas,
Houston and San Antonio -- had
populations of less than
100,000.
The estimates also show
what many of us already know,
that many of the nation's
fastest-growing cities are
suburbs of those cities or small
towns that border on them. For
example, North Las Vegas, Nev.,
a suburb of Las Vegas, had the
nation's fastest growth rate
among large cities (those with
populations of 100,000) between
July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2006.
North Las Vegas' population
increased 11.9 percent during
the period, to 197,567.
Furthermore, three of the
10 fastest-growing cities are in
the Dallas metro area: McKinney
(second), Grand Prairie (sixth)
and Denton (ninth). In the same
general vicinity, Ft. Worth just
missed the list, ranking 11th.
Phoenix had the largest
population increase of any city
between 2005 and 2006, adding
more than 43,000 residents. But
Texas dominated the list of the
10 highest numerical gainers,
with San Antonio, Ft. Worth,
Houston, Austin and Dallas each
making the top 10. Three other
|
 |
|
|
Texas cities made the list of 25
biggest numerical gainers. New
Orleans had by far the largest
population loss among all cities
with populations of 100,000
people or more. The Big Easy
lost slightly more than half of
its pre-Hurricane Katrina
population. It fell from 452,170
on July 1, 2005, to 223,388 one
year later, a loss of 50.6
percent. To put that into
perspective, Hialeah, Fla.,
which experienced the
second-highest rate of loss over
the period, saw its population
decline by 1.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the Census
Bureau threw out another tidbit
recently that the real estate
community might find
interesting: An average of 2,356
people went into business for
themselves everyday in 2005,
bringing the number of
businesses without a payroll to
20.4 million. In total, 860,000
people became business industry
"loan wolves" in 2005. The
District of Columbia led the
nation in the growth of these
small businesses with a 9.6
percent increase between 2004
and 2005, followed by Nevada at
7.7 percent and Florida with a
7.6 percent growth rate.
Rounding out the top five were
Georgia and Utah, which had
increases of 7.6 percent and 7.2
percent, respectively. Among the
nation's most populous counties,
Los Angeles County, Calif., had
799,108 non-employer businesses
as of 2005. Cook County, Ill.,
was second at 380,457, followed
by Miami-Dade, Fla., at 296,456.
Counties with big
increases in non-employer
businesses included Orange
County, Fla. (9.4 percent);
Clark County, Nev. (9 percent);
Miami-Dade (8.6 percent);
Tarrant County, Texas (8.4
percent); Gwinnett, Ga. (8.4
percent); and Hillsborough,
Fla., and Mecklenburg, N.C. (8.3
percent each).
The ten largest cities:
New York -- 8,214,426
Los Angeles -- 3,849,378
Chicago -- 2,833,321
Houston -- 2,144,491
Phoenix -- 1,512,986
Philadelphia -- 1,448,394
San Antonio -- 1,296,682
San Diego -- 1,256,951
Dallas -- 1,232,940
San Jose -- 929,936
<- We made
the top 10
|
