Miami becomes 4th. largest "Urbanized Area" in the US

[Bobdreamz]

#_Urban Area_____________________________Population__________Land Area (sq miles)_Density (per sq mile_Density (per sq km)

1_New York--Newark, NY--NJ--CT____________18,351,295__________3,450_______________5,319____________2,054
2_Los Angeles--Long Beach--Anaheim, CA____12,150,996__________1,736_______________6,999____________2,702
3_Chicago, IL--IN_________________________8,608,208___________2,443_______________3,524____________1,361
4_Miami, FL_______________________________5,502,379___________1,239_______________4,442____________1,715
5_Philadelphia, PA--NJ--DE--MD____________5,441,567___________1,981_______________2,746____________1,060
6_Dallas--Fort Worth--Arlington, TX_______5,121,892___________1,779_______________2,879____________1,112
7_Houston, TX_____________________________4,944,332___________1,660_______________2,979____________1,150
8_Washington, DC--VA--MD__________________4,586,770___________1,322_______________3,470____________1,340
9_Atlanta, GA_____________________________4,515,419___________2,645_______________1,707____________659
10_Boston, MA--NH--RI______________________4,181,019___________1,873_______________2,232____________862
11_Detroit, MI_____________________________3,734,090___________1,337_______________2,793____________1,078
12_Phoenix--Mesa, AZ_______________________3,629,114___________1,147_______________3,165____________1,222
13_San Francisco--Oakland, CA______________3,281,212___________524_________________6,266____________2,419
14_Seattle, WA_____________________________3,059,393___________1,010_______________3,028____________1,169
15_San Diego, CA___________________________2,956,746___________732_________________4,037____________1,559
16_Minneapolis--St. Paul, MN--WI___________2,650,890___________1,022_______________2,594____________1,002
17_Tampa--St. Petersburg, FL_______________2,441,770___________957_________________2,552____________985
18_Denver--Aurora, CO______________________2,374,203___________668_________________3,554____________1,372
19_Baltimore, MD___________________________2,203,663___________717_________________3,073____________1,187
20_St. Louis, MO--IL_______________________2,150,706___________924_________________2,329____________899

* Urban Areas (UA's) as defined by the US Census Bureau are made up of contiguous census tracts with a density higher than 1000 people/sq. mile.


Some notes on the 4 Major southern metros and how their Urbanized Areas grew or "sprawled from 2000 to 2010 Census.

Atlanta added | 683 Sq. Miles
Dallas added | 375 Sq. Miles
Houston added | 364 Sq Miles
Miami added | 122 Sq. miles

Miami's UA added 585,343 new residents between 2000 & 2010 while only sprawling an extra 122 Square miles in a decade.

Atlanta's UA by contrast added 1.015 million people ( nearly twice as Miami) but sprawled an extra 683 Sq. miles.

* Some positive news from the website Newgeopgraphy.com

The historical core municipality, the city of Miami, grew from 362,000 to 399,000 and accounted for 7 percent of the metropolitan area growth. Miami is unique among the nation’s historic core municipalities in having densified in every census period since 1960, despite not annexing new territory and not having substantial greenfield space for development.

http://www.newgeography.com/content/...tinues-densify

[CalleOchoGringo]

Ok so we beat out Philly, that was expected and a long time coming... but Dallas and Houston?! Those cities were growing at a faster rate than Miami last 5 times I checked, and I think they were already bigger.

Did they suddenly shrink or something?

[spellbound]

Philly and New York are essentially one megacity (even if some residents of either would quibble with that).

There is no break whatsoever between the two cities. They're as close to each other as Miami and Jupiter. The closest I've come to figuring out where one starts and the other ends is by which local channels the cable company carries.

(or maybe where the 'hoagie/sub' linguistic divide is)

[spellbound]

Pretty hard not to classify Washington/Baltimore as one metro, either. I don't think they're even 40 miles apart and it's not exactly rural Kansas inbetween.

[Bobdreamz]

leave it to "spellbound" to classify UA's as a "foodie "Census boundary! In all honestly though I don't think there is a "Urbanized Area" in the South that is comparable in density and development to Miami's.

[theEmbarcadero]

Originally Posted by spellbound

Pretty hard not to classify Washington/Baltimore as one metro, either. I don't think they're even 40 miles apart and it's not exactly rural Kansas inbetween.

I see your point.....because I think #13 San Francisco-Oakland is way too low on this list....! I have a hunch they are not including San Jose, or the South Bay...

When I lived in the East bay Area, locals always quoted the population of the Bay Area as 8 million...!!!!!!!!

That always seemed about right to me. Being a Miami boy, the whole SF Bay Area seems much, MUCH larger....then Miami/So. FLA

[PeterSmith]

The way we calculate UA's in the United States probably skews the numbers in favor of a larger Miami more than any other metropolitan area. The strip of continuous, dense development along the coast, which is sometimes no wider than a single street, means that all pockets of development stretching from Homestead all the way up to the Palm Beach-Martin County border gets wrapped into the Miami UA. Consequently, someone living roughly one hundred miles outside of downtown Miami could fall within Miami's urbanized area. Of course, the UAs of other metros are shaped by this quirk, as well, but I can't think of another area quite like Miami in this regard. We have one of the most linear development patterns in the world.

[ftlauddude]

That table up there is not correct. Our metro ranks 7th in population. From the link provided: "...Miami: The Miami metropolitan area grew 11 percent between 2000 and 2010 according to the recently released census count. The population growth was from 5,008,000 in 2000 to 5,575,000 in 2010. This growth, only modestly above the national average, caused Miami to slip behind Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, to become the nation’s 7th largest metropolitan area. The Miami metropolitan area was expanded after the 2000 census to include not only the core county of Miami-Dade, but also Broward (Fort Lauderdale) and Palm Beach (West Palm Beach) counties.

The historical core municipality, the city of Miami, grew from 362,000 to 399,000 and accounted for 7 percent of the metropolitan area growth. Miami is unique among the nation’s historic core municipalities in having densified in every census period since 1960, despite not annexing new territory and not having substantial greenfield space for development.

The suburbs captured 93 percent of the growth. Growth was modest in all counties, but was the greatest in the most outlying, Palm Beach, at 17 percent..."

Some here might have a problem with the last statement

[dave8721]

Different definitions of metros. The table below is Urbanized Areas, completely different from MSA's. UA's deal with continuously built up areas and MSA's deal with commuter patterns. MSA's tend to be far more likely to include far off sparsely populated areas hence those numbers are much higher for many metro's. South Florida's MSA and UA populations are nearly the same since South Florida has no sparsely populated exurbs to cut out.

[ftlauddude]

Originally Posted by dave8721

Different definitions of metros. The table below is Urbanized Areas, completely different from MSA's. UA's deal with continuously built up areas and MSA's deal with commuter patterns. MSA's tend to be far more likely to include far off sparsely populated areas hence those numbers are much higher for many metro's. South Florida's MSA and UA populations are nearly the same since South Florida has no sparsely populated exurbs to cut out.

I'd like to know what areas where not included in the UA. Is there any source on could investigate?

[dave8721]

Its put out by the Census so I'm sure their site has some kind of explanation of what is and is not included.

[ftlauddude]

My guess would be all the towns in Palm Beach Co bordering Lake O (Belle Glade, South Bay, Pahokee) and the southernmost part of Miami-Dade (Florida City and the vicinity); don't see anything else "rural"...

[Bobdreamz]

Originally Posted by ftlauddude

That table up there is not correct. Our metro ranks 7th in population. From the link provided: "...Miami: The Miami metropolitan area grew 11 percent between 2000 and 2010 according to the recently released census count. The population growth was from 5,008,000 in 2000 to 5,575,000 in 2010. This growth, only modestly above the national average, caused Miami to slip behind Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, to become the nation’s 7th largest metropolitan area. The Miami metropolitan area was expanded after the 2000 census to include not only the core county of Miami-Dade, but also Broward (Fort Lauderdale) and Palm Beach (West Palm Beach) counties.

The historical core municipality, the city of Miami, grew from 362,000 to 399,000 and accounted for 7 percent of the metropolitan area growth. Miami is unique among the nation’s historic core municipalities in having densified in every census period since 1960, despite not annexing new territory and not having substantial greenfield space for development.

The suburbs captured 93 percent of the growth. Growth was modest in all counties, but was the greatest in the most outlying, Palm Beach, at 17 percent..."

Some here might have a problem with the last statement

Not really a problem since I imagined that Palm Beach County would be the only county that would have continued to sprawl between 2000-2010. Broward & Miami Dade are already built out to a extent.

[spellbound]

Originally Posted by Bobdreamz

leave it to "spellbound" to classify UA's as a "foodie "Census boundary!

It is part of my rigorous adherence to scientific standards.

(by the way, I have determined that the actual dividing line between the Philly and NYC metro's is an 'Auntie Annie's' pretzels at the Quaker Bridge Mall in Hamilton, New Jersey)

[theEmbarcadero]

Originally Posted by spellbound

It is part of my rigorous adherence to scientific standards.

(by the way, I have determined that the actual dividing line between the Philly and NYC metro's is an 'Auntie Annie's' pretzels at the Quaker Bridge Mall in Hamilton, New Jersey)

I have the some problem with knowing where Opa-Locka ends, and Enid begins....can you give us some similarly clear dividing landmarks?

[CalleOchoGringo]

So when I was driving between NYC and Boston that one day, is that what all that barbed wire was for? The Yankee-Red Sox divide?

[Gutovsky]

I had no idea Phoenix was that big! Always thought of it as a mid-sized city!

[sursena]

And San Fracisco behind Phoenix... lol

[brickell]

Pdfs of the urban area maps can be found here http://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/dc10map/UAUC_RefMap/

I took the liberty of screen capping the larger UA map.

[theEmbarcadero]

Originally Posted by CalleOchoGringo

So when I was driving between NYC and Boston that one day, is that what all that barbed wire was for? The Yankee-Red Sox divide?

too funny!