Cities
See also: List of United States cities by population and Cities and metropolitan areas of the United StatesThe United States has dozens of major cities, including 8 of the 60 "global cities" of all types, with three in the "alpha" group of global cities: New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. As of 2011, the United States had 51 metropolitan areas with a population of over 1,000,000 people each. (See Table of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas.)
As of 2011, about 250 million Americans live in or around urban areas. That means more than three-quarters of the U.S. population shares just about three percent of the U.S. land area.
The following table shows the populations of the top ten metropolitan areas, as of the 2010 Census.
Leading population centers |
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Rank | Core city | Metro area pop. | Metropolitan Statistical Area | Region | New York City Los Angeles |
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1 | New York | 19,015,900 | New York–Northern New Jersey–Long Island, NY–NJ–PA MSA | Northeast | |||
2 | Los Angeles | 12,944,801 | Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana, CA MSA | West | |||
3 | Chicago | 9,504,753 | Chicago–Joliet–Naperville, IL–IN–WI MSA | Midwest | |||
4 | Dallas | 6,526,548 | Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington, TX MSA | South | |||
5 | Houston | 6,086,538 | Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown, TX MSA | South | |||
6 | Philadelphia | 5,992,414 | Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington, PA–NJ–DE–MD MSA | Northeast | |||
7 | Washington, D.C. | 5,703,948 | Washington, DC–VA–MD–WV MSA | South | |||
8 | Miami | 5,670,125 | Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach, FL MSA | South | |||
9 | Atlanta | 5,359,205 | Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Marietta, GA MSA | South | |||
10 | Boston | 4,591,112 | Boston–Cambridge–Quincy, MA–NH MSA | Northeast | |||
based on the 2011 U.S. Population Estimate |
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of The United States
Famous quotes containing the word cities:
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land,
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.”
—Emma Lazarus (18491887)
“Lord, how long?”
—Bible: Hebrew Isaiah, 6:11.
Asking how long will the chastisement of the people last. God replies, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed man far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
“Such poverty as we have today in all our great cities degrades the poor, and infects with its degradation the whole neighborhood in which they live. And whatever can degrade a neighborhood can degrade a country and a continent and finally the whole civilized world, which is only a large neighborhood.”
—George Bernard Shaw (18561950)