What is the residential and office population of your downtown?

[KCgridlock]

I ask because there are typically numbers thrown around locally that contradict what internet sources etc may say.

For example. In planning mag, it states in an article about downtown Chicago residential tower construction that 85,000 people live downtown. I thought for sure it would be much higher than that. Do they only include the loop? Then it would be a bit high I think, but they can't be including areas north of the Chicago River. Anybody know?

Also, in the same mag, an article states that Philly has nearly 100,000 downtown residents. How big of an area are they looking at. Downtown Philly didn't seem like it was loaded with residential towers when I was there over the summer.

Anyway, I just thought I would see if everybody could post what they think their downtown population is and their downtown workforce along with an idea of the geographic area this would pertain to.

Oh and as for KC the numbers I hear all the time are:

15,000 downtown which is a large area and incudes Crown Center. That same area has about 120,000 employees.

I think if you were to look at only our "loop" CBD which is small. We would have closer to 6000 residents and 70,000 employees.

Oh, and I'm not talking about what your town will have in 2020, I mean today. Everybody is building tons of new stuff. What are your numbers today?

Thanks.

[edluva]

barring Manhattan, no American downtown could be that much more populated than the next considering we did that densest 23 sq mile thread awhile back and LA, Chicago, SF, and Montreal had similar figures.

[Chase Unperson]

Originally Posted by edluva

barring Manhattan, no American downtown could be that much more populated than the next considering we did that densest 23 sq mile thread awhile back and LA, Chicago, SF, and Montreal had similar figures.

That is definitely not true.

One city's downtown could have a population of 50,000 and another's 100,000 but they could easily have a similar 25 sq mile average density.

Some downtowns are unequivocally more residential than others.

[bryson662001]

Philly's 2 square mile central core has a resident population of 85,000, more or less. This doesn't include surrounding neighborhoods......that's where they get the 100,000 figure. While actually there are many residential towers even more people live in 3 & 4 story brownstones subdivided into apartments. I am not sure about office workers but I have heard the figure 300,000 for a daytime population, which is pretty low for a city of this size.

[edluva]

Originally Posted by Imperial Teen

That is definitely not true.

One city's downtown could have a population of 50,000 and another's 100,000 but they could easily have a similar 25 sq mile average density.

Some downtowns are unequivocally more residential than others.

But I guess it's a subjective call - I personally don't consider 50k a big deal considering the geographic size of most of these "downtowns" being considered, and the fact that whatever population figure one throws at me, I know the density figure is going to underwhelm anyhow (we know the peak census tracts of many cities lies outside of downtown, and even then it's still not that great). Maybe because I've seen many non-American cities and it seems like peanuts to be arguing about any place's density outside of NY. Chicago's and SF's "downtown" density is not that impressive compared with Manhattans either. Now if we threw in employment density, then things change. But who cares how many people are working in cubicles per square mile?

[Paul in S.A TX]

S.A cbd.


Downtown workforce I read over 80,000.

Population over 23,000

[miketoronto]

Downtown Toronto

Residential population: Approx 175,000
Number of Downtown workers: Approx 400,000

Daytime population during daylight hours before 6PM including workers, students, and other visitors to downtown: Over 800,000.

Stats from City of Toronto.

Boundaries: Bathurst Street, The Lake, Don River Valley, Bloor Street/Dupont Street.

Area" 4 sq Miles.

[passdoubt]

A lot of sources throw around the stat that Center City Philadelphia has the third largest residential downtown population in the US, behind New York and Chicago. 88,000 residents. Traditionally, Center City has been between Vine and South, river to river. But maybe they're using Spring Garden to Washington now?

It's expected to break 100,000 residents in Center City before 2010. Gotta wait for the next Census to see.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by miketoronto

Downtown Toronto

Residential population: Approx 175,000
Number of Downtown workers: Approx 400,000

Daytime population during daylight hours before 6PM including workers, students, and other visitors to downtown: Over 800,000.

Stats from City of Toronto.

I'm curious as to what are the boundaries of this?

The entire Central borough of Toronto has 700,000-750,000 residents in 97 sq. km, though that includes more than just "downtown".

[miketoronto]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

I'm curious as to what are the boundaries of this?

The entire Central borough of Toronto has 700,000-750,000 residents in 97 sq. km, though that includes more than just "downtown".

I added the boundaries, which are

Bathurst Street, The Lake, Don River Valley, Bloor Street/Dupont Street.

[MayDay]

Downtown Cleveland's residential population is around 8,000 and growing, with the worker population around 130K-150K, depending on who you ask.

[LMich]

Lansing, MI: City Proper, 119,000 - Metropolitan 455,000

Downtown Daytime Population: ~ 30,000

Downtown Residential Population: 4,800 - 6,200 (depending on how defintion)

Area: ~1.8 square miles

[staff]

Downtown Malmö.
Population: 104.590 inhabitants, or 38,5% of the city proper's population.
Downtown workers: 74.946 people, or 71% of the city proper's total workforce.

City proper total population: 271.271 inhabitants.

Unfortunately I can't find stats for population densities per borough in Malmö.

---

Downtown Copenhagen (29 square kilometers or ~11 square miles).
Population: 238.758 inhabitants (how many NA cities can beat that?), or 48% of the city proper's population.
Population density: 8233 inhabitants/km2, or 21.705 inhabitants/km2.

City proper total population: 502.362.

Unfortunately I can't find stats for the downtown workers per borough in Copenhagen.


Population Greater Malmö: 605.000 inhabitants.
Population Greater Copenhagen: 1,85 million inhabitants.
Population Öresund Metropolitan Region: 3,65 million inhabitants.

[ctman987]

Hartford, CT

Downtown Population: About 1,000-1,500
There are numerous residential projects underway downtown with hopes of increasing the downtown population to 5,000-10,000

Downtown Workforce: About 100,000

[Rusty van Reddick]

Calgary, with a metropolitan population of less than 1.1 million, has a downtown workforce of 120,000.

About 30,000 live in the downtown (defined as the communities of Downtown, West Downtown, Downtown East Village, Chinatown, Eau Claire and Beltline); about 120,000 live within 5 km of the CBD.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by miketoronto

I added the boundaries, which are

Bathurst Street, The Lake, Don River Valley, Bloor Street/Dupont Street.

I see.. so the core is not actually all that mcuh denser than the surrounding borough..

[LMich]

About 30,000 live in the downtown (defined as the communities of Downtown, West Downtown, Downtown East Village, Chinatown, Eau Claire and Beltline); about 120,000 live within 5 km of the CBD.

Yes, but how many live in Downtown?

[J. Will]

"Downtown Toronto

Residential population: Approx 175,000 "

Downtown Toronto was 162k in 1996, so it's probably at least 190k now, if not 200.

[Joey D]

I think 40,000 work in downtown Wilmington
Maybe 400 people live in downtown Wilmington (sans the crackheads.)

I'm kidding, but I don't think my numbers would be that far off.

[tayser]

Daytime population of Melbourne CBD (includes St. Kilda Road, Southbank and Docklands): 650,000, 25% increase on 4 years ago and the projection is that will increase by 50% by 2014.

2004 stats: Resident population around 10,000-15,000, working population roughly 206,000, the rest students, shoppers, visitors etc etc etc.

comprehensive stats at the MCC's Census of Land use and employment

snapshot