The MSA population is far more important. Just take a look at some of those cities that are "behind" OKC's city proper in population. Atlanta, for example. Now, I love OKC, but do you think anybody seriously thinks of OKC as the "bigger" of those two cities?
OKC's city proper will keep growing and may very well reach the top 10-15 sometime in our lifetime. The reason is the great annexation blitz and the fact that housing subdivisions way out in the wheat fields are still in OKC proper. Many of the legacy cities were much smaller in geography and have been "built out" for some time, so the growth is in the suburbs. Metro areas are a far more reasonable way to actually compare populations.
Definitely MSA. Metro cities feed off each other. I.e. person in Moore shopping in OKC, person working in MWC living in OKC.
The actual city limit population doesnt show the true effect of the entire city. I.e. if all of the suburbs didnt exist, but OKC stayed the same size. What would OKC's economy look like?
MSA definitely bears more significant weight.
At the time the NBA approved OKC for NBA Supersonics' relocation; our MSA was 1.2 million in 2008. General rule: 1 million per big league sport (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL); OKC has been comfortable with its support of the Thunder; 414 consecutive sellouts since 2010.
Feel we are ready to get on the radar for Major League Soccer (MLS).
There were no major league professional franchise in our area are state. The nearest city was Dallas 200+ miles away.
MSA's are far more important.
Some cities have very small boundaries and huge MSA's.
Indeed, St. Louis is the perfect example. The city proper is tiny. It’s boundaries were set in the 1800s. It was built out by 1940. There is no possible way it could grow. Except, except: some successful cities are growing because they are increasing density.
For STL to grow it would have to have a sustained period where the myriad 4-family and 8-family and 16-family apartment buildings were replaced with buildings of 32 or 64 or 108 units. Right now that’s not happening: on the contrary, gentrification is causing things to move in the opposite direction.
The huge discussion in STL right now, on internet boards, in random coffee shops, etc where people might be wringing hands at population loss: is population itself actually that important? Are you better off with 300K or 900K in the same footprint? You would think 900K or more, right? Well, that made sense long ago. It might still make sense if the schools, utilities, infrastructure was ready for it.
It’s a TOTALLY different conversation than cities where you just randomly plat subdivisions and the population grows. As if by accident.
While I agree MSA is more significant, being a top 25 city by population allow Okc to continue to build on its urban core and downtown development to attract significantly more people to live downtown.
Jax is the most equal to OKC. Both have big footprints. I think OKC has bigger MSA area potential though.
I like smart growth meaning don’t grow too fast just grow steady.
It’s so weird that how close Jax is to OKC to size and population. Jax is naturally a bit more dense I would assume where development exists due to the swamps and marshes everywhere that render much land protected or not developable.
When I have visited Jacksonville in the past, it was more impressive to me in terms of its infrastructure as well as the vibrancy it seemed to have had that OKC doesn’t sometimes. It also has better shopping developments I wonder how much of that simply comes from being in the middle of a corridor that connects Miami to the NE and the entire easy coast. So far Jacksonville has been the only east coast city I’ve visited, strangely enough.
Jax has ocean and the St Johns river. Lots of Navy/military. But the pulp mill smell at times just wafts into the air its a bad smell. I remember when one of the large car dealerships had their lot swallowed up by sinkhole. Years ago they implemented an impact fee for all new house construction to pay for increased infrastructure demand. And a big advantage their roads don’t go bad like here since weather is more stable. They get around 8 freezing nights per year and its not much below 32 at that.
I still find it super humorous that the NFL bet big on Jacksonville over San Antonio back in the 90s. For those that don’t know, the city to get one of the expansion teams at the time came down to San Antonio and Jacksonville. The NFL felt Jacksonville had a brighter future and awarded them the team. I’m sure the Cowboys played a part of it as wel, I’m sure Jerry did his best to argue giving it to Jacksonville, but I know they saw more potential in Jacksonville. Well, that didn’t play out the way they thought... lol
I kept up with population a lot in the mid 2000s and I think the thing that really blew my mind back then was learning that Miami didn't even make the Top 50 (I think) and then learning the city only has like 48 square miles of land.
Census Cuts All Counting Efforts Short By A Month: https://www.npr.org/2020/08/03/89854...rts-by-sept-30
Can President-Elect Biden Redo The 2020 Census? It's Complicated: https://www.npr.org/2020/11/12/93392...ts-complicated
Concerned about the projections that Oklahoma City's urban and metropolitan counts will be affected by the Trump Administration's decision to cut a month off the census gathering.
2020 Oklahoma City urban projection: 662,202 - https://worldpopulationreview.com/us...-ok-population
2019 Oklahoma City metro projection: 1,408,950 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...tistical_areas
Back in November 2021 IIRC, met a black guy with his family of four who left California en-route to Texas or Oklahoma at the 7 Eleven on 23rd/MacArthur. He mentioned that Covid-19 was really getting bad in the L.A. metro. He is with the Air Force and was given an option to relocate in Texas or Oklahoma.
He decided to settle in Oklahoma City instead of San Antonio because the people were more friendly, homes were inexpensive, had larger lawns/back yards compared to those in Texas; he had his choice of Thunder or Spurs NBA basketball of which he is an NBA fan.
He had concerns about the roads; however I mentioned to him about the 2017 Bonds passed to make road improvements--he had some literature on OKC. His family were more impressed with Oklahoma City than San Antonio because the people were very courteous on the roads and friendly everywhere they stopped.
They were looking forward to changing seasons over the better climate in Texas and California. What he didn't like about S.A.on his visit was the crowded expressways and the traffic congestion. When asked about public and private schools, I gave him my cellphone # and told him to feel free to contact me if he had any questions.
He left me a voicemail message last week; thanked me, wanted me to know that he and his family have settled into Oklahoma.
Love that story!!!
Great to hear. OKC has a wonderful diversity it often doesn't get credit for nationwide. ...
Oklahoma City, the RENAISSANCE CITY!
The 200 Largest Cities in the United States by Population 2021
24 Oklahoma City Oklahoma 669,347
Looks like we're now the 24th largest city in the United States ahead of Las Vegas.
Link: https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities
Don't know if this is the latest version from the U.S. Census Bureau.
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