Where does census rank Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham on list of large cities?
Quick, which city is bigger: Charlotte or San Francisco? Raleigh or Miami, Florida? Durham or Buffalo?
If you picked the three North Carolina cities, you’d be be correct.
After another decade of healthy population growth, each moved up the list of the nation’s largest cities, according to 2020 decennial census numbers released Thursday.
Charlotte is now the nation’s 16th largest city, by a hair up one place from 2010. It had about 600 more residents than San Francisco last year, according to the official count. Charlotte grew 19.6% over the last decade, to 874,579, a pace that would have it overtake No. 15 Indianapolis shortly, if it hasn’t already.
While both cities are big banking centers anchored by Wells Fargo, San Francisco is smaller geographically and much more densely populated, with nearly seven times as many residents per square mile as Charlotte.
Raleigh, meanwhile, grew 15.8%, to 467,665, making it the 41st largest U.S. city, up from 43rd a decade ago. Raleigh is larger than Long Beach, California, Virginia Beach and Miami, but trails Colorado Springs, Omaha and Atlanta, which all grew at equal or faster rates over the last decade.
Durham gained the most ground on the list, climbing from the nation’s 87th largest city in 2010 to No. 75 now. The city grew 24.2%, to 283,506 residents, making it more populous than cities such as Buffalo, Toledo, Fort Wayne and St. Petersburg.
Cary, the largest Triangle suburb, is now the nation’s 150th largest municipality, after growing 29.2% in the last decade to 174,721 residents. The town, as it refers to itself, is now larger than cities such as Springfield, Missouri, Savannah, Georgia, and Syracuse, New York.
The nation’s largest cities, led by New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston, all added residents in the last decade, according to the census. The largest city to lose population was Detroit at No. 27, which shrank another 10.5% to 639,111.
Other big cities with fewer people compared to 2010 include Memphis (-2.1%), Baltimore (-5.7%), Milwaukee (-3%) and Cleveland (-6.1%). Large cities that ballooned by more than 20% include Austin (21.4%), Fort Worth (+24%) and Seattle (21.1%).
Beyond bragging rights, are there benefits to climbing the list of the country’s biggest cities?
The federal government uses census data in decisions about distributing money through various programs. But it’s not clear that the relative size of a city matters.
In other words, Charlotte will likely get what it gets based on its population, not on whether it’s bigger or smaller than San Francisco.
This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Where does census rank Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham on list of large cities?."
