The US Mega cities
 

Excuse me for calling US Metros over 5 million "mega cities".....

Well, here's a list of the US Mega Cities in millions

1. New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA 21,976,224 569,491
2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA 17,775,984 1,334,406
3. Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City, IL-IN-WI 9,725,317 390,434
4. Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV 8,211,213 607,300
5. Boston-Worcester-Manchester, MA-RI-NH 7,465,634 148,278
6. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA 7,228,948 112,261
7. Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland, PA-NJ-DE-MD 6,382,714 167,901
8. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 6,359,758 834,498
9. Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX 5,641,077 799,262
10. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville, GA-AL 5,478,667 894,341
11. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, FL (MSA) 5,463,857 434,568
12. Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI 5,410,014 43,549


Broken down by regions

North
NYC
Chicago
Philly
Washington DC
Detroit Area
Boston Area

South
Dallas
Houston
Miami
Atlanta

West
LA
Bay Area

What metros do you think will join the "Mega city" list in the near future? Phoenix, currently at 4 million, seems like the only sure bet. Seattle? Denver?

The Bay Area has over seven million now.

Kevin, out of genuine curiosity, why are you estimating anything when the population numbers are readily available? In fact, there is a thread just beneath this one with all kinds of stats with rankings, a dicussion, and everything.

Good point. I actually made my list before I came on the forum... I don't visit these forums as much as I used to. Thanks for info, I corrected the list.

fflint, thanks!

The Colorado-Wyoming "Front Range" megapolitan area currently has a population of 4,006,105 (2005).

By 2010, the population should be around 4.4 million.

Phoenix and Tucson are filling in the space between them "with all deliberate speed".

There's also a megalopolis growing in Central Florida incorporating Orlando, Daytona and the "Space Coast", but I think it'll eventually take up the entire I-4 corridor from Tampa/St. Peterberg to Daytona.

I think you're really jumping the gun with the use of a term like Mega-City for cities of 5 million people. It's a silly superlative to use for places like Miami or Dallas. If Atlanta is a Mega-City, what's New York? An Ultra-Mega-City? What's Tokyo? A Super-Colossal-Ultra-Mega-City?:haha:

It's all a matter of perspective. Yes, I know Atlanta is not a Mega city compared to NYC..... But if you limited this list to just the metros over 15 million in the US you wouldn't have much of a list...just NYC and LA.

I see a clear difference between the Nashville's, and St. Louis's of the world and Atlanta/Dallas etc. That's what I'm trying to get at. Whatever you want to call it, mega city or not.

rds70 made a good point about Denver. Probably by 2020 Denver could join this list. Phoenix, with or without Tucson, should be over 5 million by 2015.

If your going to use an area that large you might as well use the Vancouver-Seattle-Portland Megapolis...

Yes, it is a matter of perspective as you say. So therefore I think NYC and LA really are the only two mega-cities in the US. :) There is a huge gap from there. And so you are right, that isn't much of a list. I don't care if you want to arbitrarily make a 5-million cutoff. That's certainly OK. I just think that it's really a stretch to call those towns Mega-cities.:tup:

I think Chicago can fairly be called a megacity...

Please delete

Yeah, Chicago should be in double digit millions (10M) by the time this list comes out again.

Really, Even with this list, Chicago-Milwaukee should be the megacity and would be over 12M.

I totally agree-NY and LA are really the only 2 megacities in the US. It doesnt mean that no other cities are significant economically or culturally, but as far as size, these 2 are in a different class.

I think that the future "sun strip" (Phoenix/Tucson/Prescott) has a great chance of eventually being up on the list with NYC, LA, and Chitown. Phoenix and Las Vegas are 2 of the fastest growing big cities in the US and could collide in the distant future. There is development planned for the NE part of Arizona near the Grand Canyon that will be up against Laughlin and LV's southern suburbs. The Phoenix "blob" is moving NE to Prescott and if it continues, it could get as far as the Nevada/Arizona border and create a supercity.

There is no way that's going to happen, not in any of our lifetimes, for very good reason, one of the main ones being simple topography. This is not even to mention that Las Vegas and LA are more connected than Phoenix and Vegas ever will be.

Wishful, wishful thinking.:haha:

There's a better chance that Dallas and Houston will grow into one megacity, or Atlanta and Charlotte, or even Detroit and Toronto. All of those cities are closer to one another than Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Drinking water that magically appears out of thin air no doubt!

A more likely scenario will be an I-35 megalopolis between Dallas-Ft. Worth and San Antonio one day soon. :yes:

Just for fun, I took the county density map from the 2006 numbers and tried to determine what the sprawling US "Megacities" might look like in the intermediate future...say 2100.

I have circled areas that seem to stand out as continuous tracts of densely populated cities and towns throughout the United States. What I came up with were a total of 8 possible "Mega Cities" or Megalopolis' around different parts of the country. Today there are 2 certifiable Megalopolis' in the US...those being SF - San Diego and Boston - DC. The other 6 in my list are developing Megalopolis'.

1. Boston - New York - DC "New England"
2. Pittsburgh - Cleveland - Detroit - Chicago "Rust Belt" or "Midwest"
3. Miami - Tampa - Orlando "Sun Coast"
4. New Orleans - Biloxi - Mobile - Pensacola "Gulf Coast"
5. Houston - Dallas - San Antonio "Lone Star"
6. Raleigh - Charlotte - Atlanta - Birmingham - Nashville "Appalachia"
7. San Francisco - Los Angeles - San Diego "West Coast"
8. Seattle - Tacoma - Portland "Great Northwest"

All of the other cities seem to be in areas where they dominate the area and don't really run into other cities. See Minneapolis, Phoenix, Denver, Kansas City. Anyway, I thought I would throw this out for discussion.

http://www.imagewoof.com/view_image/...MegaCities.jpg