Population of your city's central core?
 

What's the population of your city's central core?

What does the central core mean ?

It would be great to have maps, area size...
To have an idea of what constitutes the central core of the city and to understand why it has those limits or why you chose those limits for your city (many cities don't have clearly defined central core).
This is even more interesting than just a population figure because without the context, it doesn't give much informations.

Central core (I'm assuming one means downtown) is an easier distinction in North American cities vs European as the central core tends to be markedly denser than what lies beyond it. It typically has a high concentration of office, retail, entertainment, cultural, and institutional assets. Downtown Toronto is bounded by Dupont Street to the north, Lake Ontario to the south, the Don Valley to the east, and Bathurst to the west. Some people have Bloor as the northern boundary and Dufferin as the western boundary.


Downtown Toronto

Population: 250,000
Area: 17 sq km (6.56 sq miles)
Density: 14,705 people/sq km (38,110 people/sq mile)


https://media.blogto.com/uploads/201...00&height=2500

I’m going to guess about 250 to 300k for LA, with “central core” including; DT, Westlake, Wilshire Center and Hollywood.

NYC would be about a million or so, to include Manhattan South of 96th st.

I'd figure all of Manhattan is the city core.

That area of LA would have a significantly larger population by several multiples

Seattle: 108,697 people in 1,930.6 acres (> 3 sm), 36,033 per square mile. That's tracts 71, 72, 73, 74.01, 74.02, 75, 80.01, 80.02, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 91, 92.

Another 48,004 in tracts 65, 66, 67, 70, 76, 79, 87, 90: 1,773 acres (<2.8 sm), 17,328 per square mile

Here's a map of census tracts. My numbers are from the State OMB, which has 4/1/19 estimates. I used an old printout of tract acreages.

I would maybe stop north of Central Park, but then Id take in a bit of Brooklyn.

London's Central Activity Zone (c.30 sq km) is the only part of the city that is actually static in population, as the rest booms. It's impossibly expensive to live in these areas, unless youre in the highrise fringes such as Canary Wharf and Vauxhall, but that will still be sky high pricing. Only about 350,000 very gilded individuals get to live there, but daytime population is of course into the millions. For example the Square Mile financial district counts 14,000 residents but rises to 570,000 by day.

There is (or used to be) of course another round of visitors by night, when millions (literally) would flood into the core for the nightlife, RIP which is now being priced further and further out.

https://i.postimg.cc/ZqPpMmCM/s.jpg

Personally I'd add in Chelsea to Kensington, London's de facto Old Town that would greatly increase the size and population (below it's the area on the left that doubled the central charging zone). I'd also throw in Earls Court and Shepherds Bush-White City, which are both becoming very 'central' due to the new arenas/ shopping/ media nexus that draw in millions (for example the enormous Westfield mall has nearly 30-40 million visitors p/a), and the accordant development boom to cater to it.

http://media.economist.com/sites/def...709/CBR965.gif

https://i.postimg.cc/BQfQ7FfM/s.jpg

well the only stat I found for Ottawa was just south of 4'500 residents, and in this area..Both the population and the boundary is a little suspect, even for a relatively small metro.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Dow...!4d-75.7007365

The London figures are sort of where I expected it to be:

Population: 350,000
Area: 30 sq km
Density: 11,667 people/sq km

We'll have better numbers for Chicago next year, once this year's Census is complete.

It also depends on exactly how you define Central Chicago. One definition would be to use these ZIP codes: 60601, 60602, 60603, 60604, 60605, 60606, 60607, 60610, 60611, 60616, 60642, and 60654, which basically includes the Loop, The Near North Side (which includes River North, Streeterville, the Gold Coast, and most of Old Town), most of the West Loop, and most of the Near South Side, which includes the South Loop. The population of those zip codes summed is a little over 190,000 people in around 12.8 square miles or around 16 square km, in 2010, and around 241,000 in 2017. Those are densities of 15k and almost 19k.

Those numbers are fairly well accepted, however the inclusion of 60616 is a little disputed because it's further south than some think should be included. Plus, the area called the "Central Area" by The City of Chicago is closer to the area without 60616.

So, without 60616, the area is 8.8 square miles with a population of 145,569 in 2010 and 186,982 in 2017, and densities of 16.5k sq/mi and 21.25k sq/mi.

Similarly, we could use the official, City-defined community areas of the Loop, Near North Side, Near South Side, and Near West Side. That area had a population of 145,219 in 2000, 186,038 in 2010, and about 204,045 in 2015 in an area of 11.8 sq/mi. Density would be 12.3k, 15.8k, and 17.3k, respectively.

But including the Near West Side is a little tricky because it is huge and includes areas definitely not part of downtown. So without the Near West Side, the Central Area would have a population of 98,800 in 2000, 131,157 in 2010, and 142,277 in 2015, in an area of 6.05 sq/mi. That leaves densities of 16.3, 21.7, and 23.5 sq/mi, in 2000, 2010, and 2015.

Personally, I think the estimates using the ZIP codes without 60616 are closest to what most Chicagoans would consider to be the Central Area or downtown. And since 2017, all those areas have added considerable numbers of apartments, and I think the total population downtown has likely increased by 25k since 2017, leaving us with a population of about 210,000 in 8.8 sq/mi or maybe 170,000 in 6.05 square miles using community areas without the Near West, implying densities of 23.9k sq/mi or 28.1k sq/mi.

So somewhere around 200,000 people in 7-8 square miles with density around 25,000 per square mile.

And, I think there's a good chance that by 2030 Central Chicago aka greater downtown could hit a quarter million people. And if we create a more nuanced set of borders maybe even more. With any luck, 2050 should see the population loss in the outer neighborhoods end and the population growth in and near downtown should result in positive growth, maybe enough to reach 3 million for the city and over 300,000 in the Central Area by then

Just a small note: 12.8 sq miles equates to 33.15 sq km (rather than the 16 sq km you quoted). To convert from sq miles to sq km you have to multiply by 2.59.

Portland is probably 50k
This includes the CBD, nw, pearl, John's Landing, Lloyd district and south water front.

Downtown Jersey City, around 3 square miles, has around 50,000 residents. This is estimates from past years, it's probably closer to 60,000 and we'll see results from this years census.

This view shows the Downtown Jersey City skyline, which consists of mainly residential buildings, looking south from somewhere north of Hoboken. There this all NJ, none of NY shows here.
https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/...v1/2400x-1.jpg

The City of Toronto came up with that "downtown" (initially called the Central Area) in the 1970s - and it's pretty accurate. It's the financial, cultural and institutional hub of the city, but very mixed in with residential.

Profile of TO Core neighborhoods:

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/up...07-04-2016.pdf

There were 199,000 people in this area in 2011, so 250,000 sounds about right.

Not sure about several multiples, but after looking at some zip code data, I would revise my numbers to around 500k, tops.

No, the relative feeling of “intensity” of being in NYC’s central core begins to wane around 86th actually. Being in DT Brooklyn doesn’t feel like it either. Now this assessment is for NYC. Other cities cores don’t even have the intensity of Jamaica, Queens. Being relative is really the only way to answer this question with any degree of accuracy.

A quick note about the pace of growth in Toronto's core.

From a recent City Planning document:

By 2041, the population is projected to nearly double to a potential population of 475,000. In this same time frame, Downtown, together with the two ‘shoulder’ areas of South of Eastern and Liberty Village, has the potential to reach between 850,000 and 915,000 jobs.