Here's another one of those questions that do not seem to have a definitive answer. I wanted to set this one for my pub quiz, but I'd like to be reasonably confident that the answer is correct! What are the 5 largest US cities by population?

Jack Flash

In 1998 the following estimates were published: New York 7.4m, Washington DC 7.3m, Los Angeles 3.6m, Chicago 2.8m, Houston 1.8m, Philadelphia 1.4m, San Diego 1.2m, Phoenix 1.198m. I obtained this from Whitaker's Almanac for 2000. Mar 24 02, 3:28 PM

McGruff

1. New York 2. Los Angeles 3. Chicago 4. Houston 5. Philadelphia These are ranked by the population of the central city areas only, not for the total metropolitan areas that surround them. http://www.demographia.com/db-uscity98.htm Mar 24 02, 3:40 PM

McG	Jack, that figure you have for Washington, DC would have to be for the entire Baltimore/Washington metropolitan area. DC itself has only 572,059 on chart I've found. Mar 24 02, 3:48 PM

McG

http://www.govspot.com/lists/largestcities00.htm This site lists the largest metropolitan areas in the US and shows Baltimore/Washington grouped together. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington/Baltimore and San Francisco are the top five ranked this way. Source says the US Census 2000 Mar 24 02, 3:55 PM

Jack Flash

Further to my original posting, what Whitaker's actually says is: Washington DC has a population of 7,285,206 (1998 estimate). The area of the District of Columbia (with which the city of Washington is considered co-extensive) is 61 sq.miles, with a resident population (1998 estimate) of 523,124. I wasn't entirely sure whether the city itself is regarded as separate from the District but I must of course bow to the superior knowledge of those who dwell on the other side of the pond. Mar 24 02, 5:52 PM

McG

The District of Columbia is the 61 square miles that make up the city of Washington. They are the same thing. Once you're out of that area, you are in the state of Maryland. The 7+ million population you list in your first post has to include the approximately 600,000 people in the District plus the population of the City of Baltimore and all the surrounding metropolitan area of Maryland and Northern Virginia. So Washington D.C. in itself would not be in the top 5 cities, but would if you were including the surrounding metropolitan areas. Sun Mar 24 15:12:51 CST 2002 Mar 24 02, 9:16 PM

Brainy Blonde

Looks like we came up with the same information and conclusions McGruff. mk2norwich, you can confidently set your quiz with the answers McGruff gave you. Normally, I would never confirm any answer given by him or several other regulars. Since it was for a quiz and there seemed to be some confusion, I just wanted you to feel certain, which you can. As of the year 2000 New York, N.Y. -- 8,008,278 Los Angeles, Calif. -- 3,694,820 Chicago, Ill. -- 2,896,016 Houston, Tex. -- 1,953,631 Philadelphia, Pa. -- 1,517,550 http://geography.about.com/cs/largecities/ Metropolitan Areas Ranked by Population: 2000 (Note metropolitan areas are not cities) New York--Northern New Jersey--Long Island, NY--NJ--CT--PA CMSA 21,199,865 Los Angeles--Riverside--Orange County, CA CMSA -- 16,373,645 Chicago--Gary--Kenosha, IL--IN--WI CMSA -- 9,157,540 Washington--Baltimore, DC--MD--VA--WV CMSA -- 7,608,070 San Francisco--Oakland--San Jose, CA CMSA -- 7,039,362 http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t3/tab03.txt Mar 24 02, 10:40 PM