It's been 2 years since I originally posted metro area population figures for the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, so I think it is time for an update. The following figures are based on the latest numbers available, being to mid-2018 for Canada and Australia and mid-2017 for the rest. The original figures from a couple of years ago are in the first post in this thread.
Metro Area..........Increase...........Population........Growth Rate
Dallas, TX...............146,238..............7,399,424.........2.0%
Toronto, ON............125,298..............6,341,935.........2.0%*
Melbourne, VIC.......119,421..............4,963,349.........2.5%
Houston, TX.............94,417...............6,892,427........1.4%
Sydney, NSW...........93,411...............5,230,330..........1.8%
Atlanta, GA...............89,013..............5,884,736.........1.5%
Phoenix, AZ..............88,772..............4,737,270.........1.9%
Los Angeles, CA.......82,663............17,934,577.........0.5%*
London, UK..............79,118.............13,524,411.........0.6%*
Montreal, QC............66,116..............4,255,541..........1.6%
Washington, DC.......65,908..............6,216,589.........1.1%
Seattle, WA..............64,386..............3,867,046..........1.7%
Orlando, FL..............56,498..............2,509,831.........2.3%
Austin, TX................55,269..............2,115,827.........2.7%
Tampa, FL................54,874.............3,091,399..........1.8%
San Francisco, CA.....52,512.............8,837,789..........0.6%*
Miami, FL.................51,391.............6,158,824..........0.8%
Brisbane, QLD.........50,120..............2,462,637.........2.1%
Charlotte, NC...........49,786..............2,525,305.........2.0%
Salt Lake City, UT.....47,938.............2,559,350..........1.9%*
San Antonio, TX.......47,763..............2,473,974.........2.0%
Las Vegas, NV..........47,355..............2,204,079..........2.2%
New York, NY...........45,697............20,320,876..........0.2%
Minneapolis, MN.......43,342..............3,600,618..........1.2%
Vancouver, BC.........39,400..............2,650,005..........1.5%
Auckland, NZ...........38,600..............1,695,900..........2.3%
Denver, CO..............36,379..............2,888,227..........1.3%
Nashville, TN...........34,190..............1,903,045..........1.8%
Columbus, OH..........31,748..............2,078,725..........1.5%
Raleigh, NC.............30,183..............1,335,079..........2.3%
Portland, OR............30,066..............2,453,168..........1.2%
Edmonton, AB..........29,762..............1,420,916..........2.1%
Sacramento, CA.......29,651..............2,324,884..........1.3%
Ottawa, ON..............29,460..............1,414,399..........1.8%
Jacksonville, FL........28,477..............1,504,980..........1.9%
Boston, MA...............27,692..............4,794,447..........0.6%
Birmingham, UK.......26,752..............2,897,303..........0.9%*
Calgary, AB...............26,692..............1,486,050..........1.8%
Indianapolis, IA.........23,002...............2,028,614..........1.1%
Kansas City, MO.......22,530..............2,128,912..........1.1%
Perth, WA.................21,582..............2,059,484..........1.1%
San Diego, CA..........20,485..............3,337,685..........0.6%
Notable Others:
Chicago, IL............-13,286...............9,533,040.........-0.1%
Detroit, MI.................7,133...............4,313,002..........0.2%
Philadelphia, PA.......18,968..............6,096,120.........0.3%
Manchester, UK.......17,955..............2,798,799..........0.6%*
Notes:
*Population estimates regularly get adjusted over time, so they are not necessarily 100% consistent with the numbers from 2 years ago. The sources are however the same.
*I have low confidence in the accuracy of the UK numbers. The Office of National Statistics re-based all of its estimates up to mid-2016. I am not sure whether or not I calculated the change between 2016 and 2017 correctly (I suspect I did not). However it is clear that population growth in the UK dropped off in 2017 - eg Greater London alone went from about 1.2% to 0.6% growth. If anyone else wants to have a go at calculating the London metro area's growth (based on the LUZ) please do so.
*The US numbers are MSAs except for LA, San Francisco and Salt Lake City where I used CSAs as I consider them more relevant for comparison purposes. If you don't like this approach, feel free to do your own table....
*The greater Toronto-Hamilton-Oshawa region grew by 141,261 people (1.9%) to 7,534,207, which would place it just behind Dallas in absolute numbers.
*Manchester, Fort Myers and Sarasota fell below 20,000 growth so got cut from the main list. Indianapolis was the only city added.
Some other observations:
- In Canada, Montreal was the big gainer while Calgary dropped below Edmonton and Ottawa.
- In Australia, Melbourne and Sydney are still dominating (although they fell back a bit from record growth rates in 2017). Brisbane is improving but Perth is still in the doldrums.
- In NZ, Auckland's growth rate has dropped but is still quite high.
- In Texas, Dallas seems to be pulling away from Houston, while Austin and San Antonio are booming.
- In the rest of the US, Seattle and Washington added a lot of people (along with the usual sunbelt boom cities), which is probably not surprising. However Miami slowed down, and San Francisco's growth wasn't exceptional considering that the Bay Area is going through a huge tech boom. Columbus is doing very well for a rust belt city, and Philadelphia and Detroit seem to have turned a corner too.