An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
While this may not look like much of an increase, it’s worth noting that the population living in such areas grew by 2.3 million over the period. At the same time, the population living in micropolitan statistical areas climbed by a mere 8,000, and the number living in neither metros nor micros dropped by more than 35,000. So metro areas were responsible for virtually all of our nation’s population growth.
Metro areas, by the way, contain a core urban area of at least 50,000 people and consist of the county or counties that area is located in, plus any adjacent counties from which a relatively large number of people commute to work in the urban core. Micro areas – the kid sister of sorts to metro areas ─ have a core with at least 10,000 but less than 50,000 people.
Many of us now live in one of the biggest of the big metros. Nearly one in seven Americans reside in either the New York, Los Angeles or Chicago areas. And almost one in three live in one of the 10 most populous areas, which include the three just mentioned, plus Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Philadelphia, Washington, Miami, Atlanta and Boston.
For more information on population changes in metro areas, see our population estimates released today at //www.census.gov/popest/.
Share
Top