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1920 ‘Metropolitan Districts’

In 1930, they changed the method to only include adjacent minor civil divisions that had a qualifying population density. They also included equivalent 1920 numbers when they were available, and those are what is below. In some instances, the Census Bureau did not have a comparable baseline from 1920 for the new definitions, and so I have included those metros with their 1920 numbers using the 1900-1920 definitions. These cities are marked by a double asterisk. The change in method did not result in appreciable changes in most instances, so they are still roughly comparable—they are Los Angeles, New Orleans, Memphis, Houston, Wilmington, and Portland.

Although boundaries changed, I calculated growth rates from the previous available boundaries from 1910 for comparison’s sake. Green indicates a positive rank change or growth rate over the national average (15%) in this decade, red indicates negative growth (or negative rank change, but only if there was also negative growth). Italics are metropolitan districts where the suburbs are larger than the core city. New entries are in bold. For this decade, I will only include as far down the list as is necessary to capture the whole universe of cities in the previous post (excluding those which had population decline, so down to Grand Rapids).

For most of the suburban declines, the changes in the method and annexation are the likely culprits.

Highlights: Spokane drops off the boundaries of my list due to population decline, Detroit booms due to the combustion engine, Pittsburgh is now a minority of its region, Providence and Fall River are combined and New Bedford is added to them, and a number of future notables are new entries, including Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.

1. New York City: 8,505,404
City: 5,020,048
Surroundings: 3,485,356

2. Chicago: 3,271,557
City: 2,701,705
Surroundings: 569,852

3. Philadelphia: 2,452,076
City: 1,823,779
Surroundings: 628,297

4. Boston: 2,007,425
City: 748,060
Surroundings: 1,259,365

5. Pittsburgh: 1,696,646
City: 625,110
Surroundings: 1,071,536

6. Detroit: 1,252,909
City: 996,321
Surroundings: 250,588

7. St. Louis: 1,071,529
City: 772,702
Surroundings: 298,632

8. San Francisco-Oakland: 964,495
San Francisco: 506,676
Oakland: 216,261
Surroundings: 241,558

9. Cleveland: 935,850
City: 805,442
Surroundings: 130,432

**10. Los Angeles: 879,008
City: 576,673
Surroundings: 302,335

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11. Providence-Fall River-New Bedford: 878,708
Providence: 237,595
Fall River: 120,485
New Bedford: 121,217
Surroundings: 399,411

12. Baltimore: 817,646
City: 733,826
Surroundings: 83,820 (metro definition changes likely contributed to this)

13. Minneapolis-St. Paul: 680,344
Minneapolis: 380,582
St. Paul: 234,698
Surroundings: 65,064

14. Buffalo: 671,893
City: 506,775
Surroundings: 165,118

15. Cincinnati: 630,896
City: 401,247
Surroundings: 229,649

16. Scranton-Wilkes Barre: 590,206
Scranton: 137,783
Wilkes-Barre: 83,826
Surroundings: 368,597

17. Milwaukee: 553,118
City: 460,194
Surroundings: 92,924

18. Washington, D.C. 524,469
City: 437,571
Surroundings: 86,898

19. Kansas City: 479,893
KCMO: 324,410
KCKS: 108,851
Surroundings: 46,632

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**20. New Orleans: 397,915
City: 387,219
Surroundings: 10,696

21. Hartford: 381,875
City: 138,036
Surroundings: 243,830

22. Albany: 377,185
Albany: 113,344
Schenectady: 88,723
Troy: 71,996
Surroundings: 103,122

23. Springfield-Holyoke: 359,778
Cities: 189,817
Surroundings: 169,961

24. Seattle: 350,678
City: 315,685
Surroundings: 34,993

25. Indianapolis: 343,868
City: 314,194
Surroundings: 29,074

26. Lowell-Lawrence: 342,706
Lowell: 112,759
Lawrence: 94,270
Surroundings: 135,677

27. Louisville: 330,048
City: 234,801
Surroundings: 95,157

28. Rochester: 328,925
City: 295,750
Surroundings: 33,175

29. Portland: 299,882
City: 258,288
Surroundings: 41,594

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30. Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News: 298,080
Cities: 205,770
Surroundings: 92,326

31. Akron: 288,371
City: 208,435
Surroundings: 79,936

32. Youngstown: 283,521
City: 132,358
Surroundings: 151,163

33. Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton: 281,083
Cities: 274,063
Surroundings: 103,122

34. Denver: 280,332
City: 256,491
Surroundings: 23,841

35. Worcester: 276,755
City: 170,754
Surroundings: 97,001

36. Toledo: 275,062
City: 243,164
Surroundings: 31,898

37. Columbus: 267,413
City: 237,031
Surroundings: 30,382

38. Birmingham: 266,772
City: 178,806
Surroundings: 87,966

39. Atlanta: 260,424
City: 200,616
Surroundings: 59,808

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40. New Haven: 258,912
City: 162,537
Surroundings: 96,365

41. Omaha: 238,440
City: 191,601
Surroundings: 46,739

**42. Memphis: 214,169
City: 162,351
Surroundings: 51,818

43. Syracuse: 200,868
City: 171,717
Surroundings: 29,151

44. Dallas: 195,565
City: 158,976
Surroundings: 36,589

45. San Antonio: 189,392
City: 161,379
Surroundings: 28,013

46. Richmond: 194,890
City: 171,667
Surroundings: 23,223

47. Dayton: 189,360
City: 152,559
Surroundings: 36,801

48. Bridgeport: 185,580
City: 143,555
Surroundings: 42,025

49. Utica: 174,784
City: 94,156
Surroundings: 80,628

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50. Wilmington: 171,713
City: 110,168
Surroundings: 61,535

51. Wheeling: 170,479
City: 56,208
Surroundings: 114,271

52. Houston: 168,351
City: 138,276
Surroundings: 30,075

53. Trenton: 162,331
City: 119,289
Surroundings: 43,042

54. Nashville: 156,238
City: 118,342
Surroundings: 37,896 (another actual loss, not due to annexations or to the way the definitions changed)

55. Grand Rapids: 154,264
City: 137,634
Surroundings: 16,630



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Source:
1920 standalone numbers (same geographies as 1910 numbers): https://www2.census.gov/library/publ...84484v1ch1.pdf

1920 comparison numbers (same geographies at 1930 numbers, in the 1930 report as a comparison baseline):https://www2.census.gov/library/publ...3450421ch1.pdf