America: Most Populous Cities

Phoenix has become the nation’s fifth most populous city, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates. As of July 1, 2006, this desert metropolis has a population of 1.5 million. New York continued to be the nation’s most populous city, with 8.2 million residents. This was more than twice the population of Los Angeles, which ranked second at 3.8 million.

Phoenix moved into fifth place ahead of Philadelphia, the latest evidence of a decades-long population shift. Nearly a century ago, in 1910, each of the 10 most populous cities was within roughly 500 miles of the Canadian border. The 2006 estimates show that seven of the top 10 — and three of the top five — are now in states that border Mexico.

Only three of the top 10 from 1910 remained on the list in 2006: New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. Conversely, three of the current top 10 cities (Phoenix; San Jose, California. and San Diego) were not even among the 100 most populous in 1910, while three more (Dallas, Houston and San Antonio) had populations of less than 100,000.

Fastest Growing Cities
Many of the nation’s fastest-growing cities are suburbs. North Las Vegas, Nevada, had the nation’s fastest growth rate among large cities (100,000 or more population) between July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2006. North Las Vegas’ population increased 11.9 percent to 197,567. It was joined on the list of the 10 fastest-growing cities by three in the Dallas metro area: McKinney (ranking second), Grand Prairie (sixth) and Denton (ninth). In the same vicinity, Fort Worth just missed the list, ranking 11th.

Florida and Arizona each had two cities among the 10 fastest growing: Port St. Lucie (third) and Cape Coral (fourth) in Florida; and Gilbert (fifth) and Peoria (seventh) in Arizona, both near Phoenix. North Carolina (Cary, near Raleigh) and California (Lancaster, near Los Angeles) each contributed one city to the list. California had seven cities among the 25 fastest growing, leading all states.

Phoenix had the largest population increase of any city, adding more than 43,000 residents to reach 1.5 million. However, Texas dominated the list of the 10 highest gainers, with San Antonio, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and Dallas each making the top 10. North Las Vegas; Miami; Charlotte, N.C.; and San Jose, California. rounded out the list of the 10 biggest gainers. Overall, eight Texas cities were among the 25 biggest gainers.

New Orleans had by far the largest population loss among all cities with populations of at least 100,000 people. The city lost slightly more than half of its pre-Hurricane Katrina population. It fell from 452,170 on July 1, 2005, to 223,388 one year later — a loss of 50.6 percent.

Top 25 of
Americas Largest Cities

City	State	Population
New York	New York	8,210,000
Los Angeles	California	3,850,000
Chicago	Illinios	2,830,000
Houston	Texas	2,140,000
Phoenix	Arizona	1,510,000
Philadelphia	Pennslyvania	1,450,000
San Antonio	Texas	1,300,000
San Diego	California	1,260,000
Dallas	Texas	1,230,000
San Jose	California	930,000
Detroit	Michigan	870,000
Jacksonville	Florida	790,000
Indianapolis	Indiana	780,000
San Francisco	California	740,000
Columbus	Ohio	730,000
Austin	Texas	710,000
Memphis	Tennessee	670,000
Fort Worth	Texas	650,000
Baltimore	Maryland	630,000
Charlotte	North Carolina	630,000
El Paso	Texas	610,000
Boston	Massachusetts	590,000
Seattle	Washington	580,000
Washington	District Columbia	580,000
Milwaukee	Wisconsin	570,000