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:
“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.”
“Satire is born of the cities it denounces.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The cities of the world are concentric, isomorphic, synchronic. Only one exists and you are always in the same one. It’s the effect of their permanent revolution, their intense circulation, their instantaneous magnetism.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)