Raleigh and Statistical Area Population

The Pub
383

Let’s look at some statistics . . .

All density estimates are from the Census Bureau’s QuickFacts tool, and use 2010 data. Municipalities in bold are located in Wake County.

• Raleigh (2,826 (people/sq.mi.)
• Cary (2,488)
• Charlotte (2,457)
• Apex (2,438)
• Morrisville (2,250)
• Cornelius (2,058)
• Wake Forest (1,995)
• Davidson (1,903)
• Knightdale (1,837)
• Garner (1,746)
Mecklenburg County (1,756)
• Holly Springs (1,643)
• Matthews (1,590)
• Fuquay-Varina (1,484)
• Pineville (1,129)
• Wendell (1,123)
• Huntersville (1,081)
Wake County (1,079)
• Zebulon (1,071)
• Rolesville (962)
• Mint Hill (950)

These two towns are mostly located in Union County, but a small portion of each extends into Mecklenburg:
• Stallings (1,749)
• Weddington (542)

These cities and towns are located in other counties but small portions extend into Wake:
• Durham (2,127)
• Angier (1,496)

It interesting to see that, as @JeepCSC noted, Wake County is less dense, but has denser (and more—12 vs 7) communities than Mecklenburg. Of course, all this data is nearly a decade old, so we will see how it changes once 2020 data is published.

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384

These stats are now significantly off for many of these communities. Raleigh is well over 3000 ppl/m2 and towns like Apex, Morrisville and Cary have also ramped up their densities. Likewise, Charlotte’s density has increased, but it still falls short of Raleigh’s, and might still be lower than some of Raleigh’s burbs.
The big shocker is how less dense Durham is than Raleigh. It too has increased, but it still falls way short of Raleigh.

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385

I think using 2018 stats, it’s

Morrisville
Raleigh
Wake Forest
Cary
Apex
Charlotte

It’s likely Knightdale passed Charlotte in density last year but it will take a few months to know for sure. Charlotte has the densest area in the state with uptown. But it is not a dense city in the main. Conversely Wake has some of the densest cities/towns in the state, but it overall isn’t a dense county. Both have their flab, both of have their density. Density and how these suburban areas handle it, will be the name of the game over the next decade or so.

386

Wake County probably will never be particularly dense due to large watershed protection areas of Falls Lake, Swift Creek, Little River, and to include the Harris Lake and part of Jordan Lake areas too. Not to mention RDU and Umstead.

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387

Thanks for saving me the time to pull those reasons together! They’ve been on my mind but I didn’t get around to it. :+1:t3:
That said, Wake is getting denser. It’s already denser than Durham Co., and I think that a lot of people might presume that Durham is denser for the same reason why Mecklenburg is denser.

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389

A bit off topic, but I’ve noticed Raleigh is ranked 41st in population and gradually climbing. I also see that Durham is growing a little faster than Greensboro and should become the state’s third largest in just a few years.

390

It’s all wrong will be mid 30s to lower in the next things are messed up will find out in the fall. The MSA will change completely to now cause of us bring the largest county puts us if we had Durgam- Chapel Hill annexation be the largest metro in the area. I’ma ask a representative on what they can do about it.

391

Raleigh will probably climb alot higher city projections have the population at around 510,000 people but I guess we will have to wait for the official U.S. Census results that usually under reports the numbers

392

The Census got burned in 2010 when their 2009 projection for Atlanta was 120,000+ more than the actual 2010 Census numbers. Even Raleigh’s 2009 projection was slightly higher than than the 2010 Census.
I’m not presuming one way or the other whether or not Raleigh’s over 500,000. If you’ve been following the yearly Census estimates this past decade, you’d see a huge slow down in the projections late in the decade when the typical 8-10,000 yearly add turned into 3-4000. I just have to wonder if that was the Census hedging its bets? Also, Raleigh can’t count on forever suburban expansion to add to its yearly population because annexation isn’t the same game now as it used to be.
I am not sure how much, if any, existing land is available within the city limits to develop into a significant suburban subdivision. While Raleigh’s future growth will undoubtedly continue to include edge development within its ETJ via annexation, it will also include infill and redevelopment of low density apartment complexes (2 story), dead strip malls, and high density nodes like Downtown, North Hills, Crabtree, etc.

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393

One thing to keep in mind is that distribution in populations of cities and counties relative to each other tends to change only slowly and gradually.

Yes, Raleigh is denser than Charlotte, but Charlotte is physically much bigger than Raleigh, so it has a much larger population. Mecklenburg County is physically a lot smaller than Wake County, so it’s significantly denser, even though Wake now has slightly more people. (This means that the non-Charlotte part of Mecklenburg County is much smaller than the non-Raleigh part of Wake County, which makes a huge difference.)

All of these things are very likely still going to be true decades from now, even if Raleigh and Wake County continue to grow at the sort of rapid pace we’re seeing now, because Charlotte and Mecklenburg County are also growing rapidly. With time, both cities will start to move up in the national rankings as they catch up to cities that aren’t growing very much, but it’s going to be a very slow, very gradual process–every once in a while we’ll catch a stagnant city here or there.

FWIW, consolidating Durham and Raleigh into one MSA probably would help elevate the visibility of both cities a little bit with the general population, but I really don’t think it’s going to have any effect at all on businesses that do some very serious number-crunching in making location decisions, regardless of whether those companies sell groceries or sports-related entertainment or what have you. Companies have to put real money behind these decisions, so they’re just not going to be that lazy about it.

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394

You have to wonder what impact our current situation will have on corporate headquarters going forward in the future. Will companies move away from brick and mortar HQs in favor of virtual ones? If so do places like Raleigh and Durham become attractive destinations for the new work from home workforce. Tulsa is already under taking recruitment strategies to try and entice these workers would it behoove Raleigh to try and do something similar?

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395

I really hope this is not the direction society is forced to take as a result of all this. Kids these days (especially the ones that grow up around here) are already sheltered/coddled little pricks. I’m hoping this quarantine will wake people up and we will all realize that despite the health risks - we need physical human interaction.

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396

My kid is actually very nice, thank you very much.

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397

Incorporated Wake County (Raleigh, Apex, Garner, Wake Forest, Cary, etc) is roughly the same area and population as Charlotte (~800,000 in ~300 sq miles) and growing faster. Wake has more farmland than Mecklenburg, but at its core they are fairly similar in population and area (and therefore density).

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398

I agree that companies aren’t lazy, but you have to admit that there’s an advantage in the public consciousness to being seen as larger. For example: while the Triangle continues to outgrow greater Nashville, you’d never know it by the data sets used to compare the two areas. Nashville has an enormous MSA and even larger CSA, which is now less populated than the Raleigh-Durham-Cary CSA, but you’d never know this by the narrative that pushes Nashville as the next “it” city for growth.

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399

Basically, Wake has more opportunity for growth because it has more land.
No doubt that Charlotte has a more developed central core than either Raleigh or Durham, but they are also straddled with a lot more 20th century suburban development in their limits that is very low density. It’s really easy to see that from a satellite view on Google Maps. This makes pushing up their density metrics very challenging.
As for Wake’s new suburbs, they are largely being built in a much higher density that mimics what was typically seen in places like California back when I was a kid there. It’s not that these burbs are being developed in an urban way; it’s that they are being developed in a very dense suburban way. Google Maps
It’s not hard to image a lot of undeveloped Wake going down this path and adding hundreds of thousand of new residents.

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400

Yeah, the bigger we get, the more slowly we’re going to start passing other cities, because the gaps start to get wider in absolute terms. Kansas City is a great example, in fact. At some point we’re going to pass them, but it’s going to be a long, slow grind.

FWIW, I absolutely think Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill should all be one MSA, mainly just because that’s what would best reflect the reality on the ground. The Research Triangle is pretty clearly one cohesive metro area. I’m just not sure how much difference it would make in ways that anyone would really notice.

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401

:crazy_face:
Okay, call me crazy but…
Let’s mess things up and instead of:
Raleigh Metro
or
Durham Metro
etc…
Let’s be creative and go with:

Research Triangle Region/NC

How say you? :thinking: :grin: :upside_down_face:

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402

image

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403

Ha Ha…

I tried…Lol :grin:

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