It’s not just Charlotte. Most of the fast growing cities in the Sunbelt have huge land areas. This includes Jacksonville, Nashville, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston Austin, and Phoenix. Charlotte is on the smaller size among the group, and yet it’s still more than twice the physical size of Raleigh.
If we look at absolute growth and consider land area, Miami is the city that’s really impressive this past year. It grew by over 16,000 in a land area that’s just under 36 square miles of land. That’s more than 453 people per square mile. That is insanely impressive for a city that’s already one of the densest major cities in the country.
Raleigh is still more densely populated overall than Charlotte, but neither city can claim the sort of density increase that Miami achieved. Charlotte densified by 76 people per square mile, while Raleigh densified by about 59 people per square mile. AI says Raleigh’s land is is 147 square miles, so that makes the city 3,401 ppl/m2. AI says Charlotte’s land area is 310 excluding water area, so that makes the city 3,043 ppl/m2.
I just realized that Raleigh proper, despite being less than half the physical size, has outgrown Austin so far this decade. This isn’t a percentage data point either. This is by absolute growth numbers.
Wake has also substantially outgrown Travis Co. Texas.
Remember that Nashville and Jacksonville are consolidated city-county governments. Nashville is 525 square miles and Jacksonville is 918 square miles. (Some water is included in both figures). Raleigh is 149 square miles and has very limited ability to grow, given the politics of Wake County and North Carolina.
We will surely catch Kansas City in the next few years. The other two are less certain.
As for 500K, I had understood that the Federal Government looked at cities differently when they reach that number. Then again. who knows WTF is going to be left of any normal process at the Federal level next year when we cross it. #justraleighsluck
i keep seing outmigration articles about california but perhaps it isn’t in the capital city. as a former reno resident who played some tennis there…when the nearby fires flare up Sacramento can awfully hazy.
Raleigh’s chances are better with KC because they are both next in line, and they are growing the most slowly. It looks like among the 4 above Raleigh, Atlanta will be the most difficult to pass in the long run. Sacramento has a land issue but they are furthest ahead and Raleigh will have a difficult time catching them if we can’t accelerate our density game. It looks like Mesa is slowing down, but I don’t know what the annexation game is in AZ.
There are easily 175 people camping at the State Fair grounds each year. Can’t they declare legal residency after 30 days? Someone should canvas the RV park to juice our numbers.
Trump is ordering a new Census that excludes undocumented immigrants.
Over the last several days, I have been unable to access quick facts on the Census website. It’s been saying that it’s down for maintenance.
That’s all I’m going to say about that here.
California gonna lose a lot of electoral power, not gonna say I support Trump or not, but if that becomes permanent lefties are gonna have to fight even harder for battleground states and swing states like North Carolina. I have a lot to say about this that why I have a blue check mark subscription now on X, but this is something bad is coming to America I’m afraid.
Raleigh, on the verge of being 500,000, will lose reported population along with most every other growing city in the country, though Raleigh’s statistical loss will not likely be as substantial as many other cities.
Remember that this topic is about statistics and population and Trump’s order for a new Census to exclude undocumented immigrants does affect our statistical population. While I have my own value judgments about the topic, I am specifically avoiding talking about them and trying to keep this to objective impacts.
or Gucci 
– but it’s a nice round number.
