Ok I see what you’re saying. I was just gently teasing anyways (mostly Suzanne), but that is cool that it’s over 500k now. I overlooked that.
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We were also featured on my favorite page libs of TikTok.
Wake County is almost 50% bigger than Mecklenburg in land size so Wake will continue to be the largest in population in NC for decades and decades. Look at the population of all the counties that touch Mecklenburg like Cabarrus, Union, Gaston, Iredell in NC or York and Lancaster in SC they are growing fast. But Wake will continue to be the population leader you have so much land especially to north and east inside the county to developed. Wake is 835 square miles and Meck is 546 sq miles.
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Kind of like Charlotte City limits being double the size of Raleigh yeah?
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And the Charlotte CSA square area being 35% larger than Raleigh-Durham really bumping their “metro” population.
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Fair point, but another fair point is that a huge chunk of the north part of Wake County that you reference is in the Falls Lake watershed and results in really low density development and population. Wake also has a huge state park, lots of square miles of NC State research farmland, and lots of state controlled land (especially in Raleigh). Nonetheless, Wake still has more developable land and will likely remain NC’s most populated county for many decades to come, if not forever. Another truth is that Charlotte will forever be NC’s largest city proper because it’s impossible for Raleigh to more than double its land area to match that of the Queen City. I think that the largest Raleigh could ever be is still under 200 square miles because it’s ETJ just has another 35 square miles or so, and Raleigh has to compete with lots of large and growing municipalities within Wake County.
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This isn’t necessarily Raleigh, but NC in general, though I’m sure that Raleigh and the Triangle play a pretty big part in the rankings. For social mobility, NC ranks 23rd nationally. Frankly, I expected it be lower. Interestingly, NC ranks alongside its neighbors to the north with VA being 24th, MD being 21st and DE being 22nd. Our neighbors to the south didn’t fare as well with SC being 35, GA being 44th, and FL being 36th. TX (42nd) also didn’t fare well in comparison.
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almost dead center. "Vale of Humility between Two Mountains of Conceit
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I did really even look at the CSA numbers Charlotte MSA is over 2.9 Million. I do think as I have said many times Raleigh Durham needs to be one metro not 2.
As for the city limits Charlotte is reaching the capacity held at bay in the north and south but has room within the county to grow west and east. Raleigh on the other hand has lots of towns butting up against Cary, Garner, Knightdale even Wake Forest.
Wake County will continue to be the most populous county in the state for decades and decades to come.
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If you are into this sort of data like I am, here are some links to explore:
The site has been temperamental today. I apologize if they aren’t working properly when you click. When it’s working, the links provide some context to the whole MSA and CSA comparisons, and it’s visually clear that the designations generally downplay Raleigh and the Triangle by land area in comparison to many other fast growing metros in the country.
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The square miles of incorporated Wake County communities (Raleigh, Cary, Garner, Wake Forest, Knightdale, Apex, Fuquay, and Holly Springs) is roughly the sam area as Charlotte’s city limits and has roughly the same number of people. All the empty land in the east and north will ensure Wake stays ahead in the future, but the fact is Wake densified quicker in it’s core, and that’s why it passed Mecklenburg already.
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I think that Wake passing Mecklenburg has more to do with WHEN it grew. Older north Raleigh is more similar to much of south Charlotte in that they were developed when lots were larger and suburbia was less dense. Many of Wake’s suburbs (different municipalities) hit their growth spurts this century as lots were shrinking in size and suburban development became more dense.
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agreed Google Maps