Raleigh and Statistical Area Population

It does, and it’s nice, but it’s not in DTR!

Closer than Cary…! sar/charaz

But you can walk to it from downtown.

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Downtown is also closer than you think. That western tentacle of downtown proper comes really close to Pullen Park! Also, Raleigh actually has a real downtown.

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When I say urban park I am meaning a smaller park like Moore Square which is smaller (4 acres) than the Downtown Cary Park which is only 7 acres itself. Pullen Park is 66 acres and Dix Park is 300 acres they are not small urban parks. They are not in the same league. Both of those parks are great. Raleigh only has 2 urban parks that are small the 2 historical squares Nash and Moore I can think of. The 7 acre downtown Cary park has a dog park, destination playground, an amphitheatre, skybridge, concessions etc. that is a lot for just 7 acres. But if people don’t like it so be it. It is fantastic though.

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Where has this thread gone?

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What I want to know is when is Raleigh expected to finally reach 500,000? 2030 or 2035?

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Perhaps this belongs into the ‘Falmewars City Debate’ thread.

Well if that’s the case, then its honestly the greatest urban park ever built.

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I think that we’ll get a 500,000 estimate before the end of the decade, but who knows what will happen with the actual Census? In recent Census years, we have found that the previous year’s estimate was too high.
Raleigh is basically only working with infill growth now. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I know that the city limits incrementally expand as developers in the ETJ ask for annexation for new projects, but that is a pretty slow burn expansion process compared to what it was in the 20th Century, and up until the annexation-at-will laws changed.
The 2023 estimate was a bit over 482K, and that was up about 14,600 since the census. If growth stays on that track, one could expect that the city’s estimate will cross 500K in 2027 or so. Hopefully that will hold true through the 2030 Census.

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I’m glad Raleigh is in its infill era. Our city and region will be better because of it. Rapid transit will take us to the next level for sure. AND we get to learn from other cities and regions.

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Raleigh’s density dropped substantially during post WW2 decades of the suburban boom. I think that the density bottomed out around 2300 ppl/m2 or something like that. Currently Raleigh’s about 1000 ppl/m2 higher than that. I’d like the city to aspire to be 4000ppl/m2 but that will take another 100,000 residents without substantially increasing the city’s footprint. This would put our density around that of Columbus, OH.

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Fun fact the city of Raleigh has more people per square mile than Charlotte! Raleigh 3178 to Charlotte 2836 per sq mile. Source US Census 2020

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Yep. I’ve known that one!

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MSA names are based solely on population, so Cary beats out Chapel Hill. Harnett County is known as “Anderson Creek micropolitan statistical area” because the unincorporated, ca. 1991 Anderson Creek Club gated community has more residents than Lillington (est. 1874).

Was wondering about this again…

I think it’s the implied [c] that is the hangup here. Durham “qualifies as a central county of [Durham-CH] CBSA and as outlying in another [Raleigh],” in which case the OMB rules stipulate that it remains just Durham. FWIW, OnTheMap confirms that the pandemic didn’t change much; now 32.7% of Durham’s workers reside in Wake, vs. 28.9% for Durham.

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in the 80s as a teenager i was always meeting people from cary, in-town (raleigh). with delivery jobs I had in the 90s cary and durham just seemed liked extensions of where I was. i don’t understand the odd separation either with regards to MSAs. met a guy not long ago who lives in durham and commutes west to the honda plant near Burlington. cary durham and raleigh all share borders. garner for that matter as well.

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