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1900 ‘Metropolitan Districts’

Census Bureau first defined a ‘metropolitan district’ in 1910 as a city over 200,000 and all urban minor civil districts (townships, etc.) within roughly 10 miles of that city. They construct an identical measure for cities between 100,000 and 200,000 without calling this latter list ‘metropolitan.’

For both lists, the Census Bureau also published the vintage 1900 numbers for sake of comparison. I have collated them below into a single list, and set a minimum total population threshold of 100,000 for inclusion (Portland, Seattle, and Spokane are thusly dropped, and won’t be above that number for another decade). Italics are core cities which are smaller than their collection of surrounding towns.

1. New York City: 4,607,804
City: 3,437,202
Surroundings: 1,170,602 (includes Jersey City and Newark)

2. Chicago: 1,837,987
City: 1,608,575
Surroundings: 139,412

3. Philadelphia: 1,623,149
City: 1,293,697
Surroundings: 329,452

4. Boston: 1,249,504
City: 560,892
Surroundings: 688,612

5. Pittsburgh: 792,968
City: 451,512
Surroundings: 341,456

6. St. Louis: 649,711
City: 575,238
Surroundings: 74,473

7. Baltimore: 577,670
City: 508,957
Surroundings: 68,713

8. Cincinnati: 495,979
City: 325,902
Surroundings: 170,077

9. San Francisco-Oakland: 473,073
San Francisco: 342,782
Oakland: 66,960
Surroundings: 63,331

10. Cleveland: 420,020
City: 381,768
Surroundings: 38,252

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11. Buffalo: 394,031
City: 352,387
Surroundings: 41,644

12. Minneapolis-St. Paul: 372,009
Minneapolis: 202,718
St. Paul: 163,065
Surroundings: 6,226

13. Detroit: 318,967
City: 285,704
Surroundings: 33,263

14. Milwaukee: 324,963
City: 285,315
Surroundings: 39,648

15. Providence: 306,110
City: 175,597
Surroundings: 130,513

16. Washington, D.C. 305,684
City: 278,718
Surroundings: 26,966

17. Albany: 297,094
City: 94,151
Surroundings: 202,943

18. New Orleans: 294,615
City: 287,104
Surroundings: 7,511

19. Louisville: 259,856
City: 204,731
Surroundings: 55,125

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20. Lowell: 238,246
City: 94,969
Surroundings: 143,277

21. Scranton: 235,039
City: 102,026
Surroundings: 184,671

22. Kansas City: 228,235
KCMO: 163,752
KCKS: 51,148
Surroundings: 13,065

23. Fall River: 226,231
City: 104,863
Surroundings: 121,868

24. Worcester: 194,653
City: 118,421
Surroundings: 76,232

25. Rochester: 185,409
City: 162,608
Surroundings: 22,801

26. New Haven: 182,315
City: 108,027
Surroundings: 76,232

27. Omaha: 175,133
City: 102,555
Surroundings: 72,578

28. Indianapolis: 173,632
City: 169,164
Surroundings: 4,468

29. Columbus: 164,460
City: 125,560
Surroundings: 38,900

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30. Toledo: 164,198
City: 131,822
Surroundings: 32,376

31. Syracuse: 150,853
City: 108,374
Surroundings: 42,479

32. Atlanta: 141,023
City: 89,872
Surroundings: 51,151

33. Memphis: 137,462
City: 102,320
Surroundings: 35,142

34. Denver: 135,809
City: 133,859
Surroundings: 1,950

35. Dayton: 130,917
City: 85,333
Surroundings: 45,584

36. Birmingham: 129,131
City: 38,415
Surroundings: 90,716

37. Nashville: 124,642
City: 85,333
Surroundings: 43,777

38. Los Angeles: 123,062
City: 102,479
Surroundings: 20,583

39. Richmond: 119,645
City: 85,050
Surroundings: 34,595

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40. Bridgeport: 116,117
City: 70,996
Surroundings: 45,121

41. Grand Rapids: 114,808
City: 87,565
Surroundings: 27,333




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Source: https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmass...1,0.319,0.47,0