F*ck the CMA: Find Population on Map
 

For shits and giggles, and likely some spirited discussion about population density, geography, and CMAs.
https://www.freemaptools.com/find-population.htm

Within 100km (62.14 miles in the ancient measurement system of cubits and pecks) of downtown_____, there are _______ people:
Toronto 8,626,831
Montreal 4,737,767
Vancouver 3,207,026
Ottawa 1,605,037
Calgary 1,238,507
Edmonton 1,148,608
Quebec City 1,084,257
Winnipeg 865,544
Halifax 558,444

I did not include Hamilton, Kitchener, etc. because of these cities overlap with larger urban centres like Toronto.

New York City 20,598,460
Los Angeles 16,362,200
Chicago 9,726,824

Tokyo 39,351,430
Hong Kong 30,545,060
London (UK) 18,285,010
Paris 13,120,800
Lagos 13,373,040

fun site, it will occupy a lot of your time! I was using that site for all the population estimates in the Oklahoma City thread.

Interesting!

I did:

Colombo, Sri Lanka - 10,975,060
Manila - 26,759,120
Mexico City - 26,447,310

Major U.S. cities with at least 4M people in 100 km radius, in order:

New York City 20,598,460
Los Angeles 16,362,200
Philadelphia: 9,994,674
Chicago 9,726,824
Baltimore: 8,872,962
Washington: 7,985,888
San Francisco: 7,575,869
Boston: 7,408,713
Detroit: 6,555,219
Dallas: 5,776,509
Fort Lauderdale: 5,418,778
San Diego: 5,272,606
Buffalo: 5,248,179 (from Niagara Falls: 7,546,879)
Atlanta: 5,174,462
Houston: 5,156,490
Miami: 4,965,401
Cleveland: 4,105,153
Seattle: 4,025,621

This might surprise some.

^Phoenix?

6,633,107 for Detroit. I set it at New Center since that's the geographical center of the city proper I thought that made the most sense.

Do they update with estimates or is this data ten years old?

No surprises but some surprising omissions.

Philadelphia bigger than Chicago? Did not expect that.

Most correspond pretty closely with CSA populations, though Detroit (higher) and Dallas (lower) are a bit of surprise.

Philadelphia and Baltimore are of course "surprises", though those also pick up parts of neighbouring metros so they're not so much a reflection of their own populations as it is that they're just in a heavily populated corridor with larger cities bleeding into their hinterlands.

The radius includes places like Flint, Sarina, half of Toledo. Which I think is a big stretch to call Detroit's population, those are independent per-war cities. So probably chop off around 600K.

Around 6 million is my idea of Detroit's real size.

Some other major cities where the population is cooked by international borders and/or adjacent, larger metros:

San Diego: 5,272,606
Buffalo: 4,436,596

A fun one:

Bellingham, WA: 3,696,834. Picks up 3 independent metros in 2 countries which are all much bigger than Bellingham.

Forgot about these two. I'll add to my list.

It might be based on 2010 numbers, as the radius includes much of Pinal County, at least the most populous parts. I got just over 3.5 million with downtown Phoenix as center point.

Buffalo: 5,248,179 (measured from Delaware Park)
Niagara Falls: 7,546,879 (measured from downtown Niagara Falls, NY)

For Buffalo/Niagara Falls, 100km distance includes portions of Rochester, Hamilton, and Toronto.

Youngstown: 5,246,975
Toledo: 4,746,203

I updated Buffalo with your numbers. Buffalo is probably the biggest surprise for me so far, even though it shouldn't be since it's located in a fairly dense region.

Cleveland and Pittsburgh, with over 3.7 million listed, both include much of the Youngstown-Warren metro populations. Also, Cleveland's radius has Canton, OH, which usually isn't included on CMSA population figures. Very interesting tool though, as I remember a mathematical formula that creates a radius around a metro area, based on population, as pertains to it's sphere of influence. This seems to emulate that formula, to a degree.

Yeah. When Baltimore and Philadelphia are posting population numbers that are almost larger than the populations of their actual states (Maryland-6.0 Million/Pennsylvania 12.8 Million), the catchment area is too large.

I lowered the distance to 80km, or 49.71 miles, and seems a bit fairer. I used my old stomping grounds of Pittsburgh, and instead of 3.7 million, including Youngstown, it was almost 3 million, which only included Lawrence County over to northernmost Butler County to the north, East Liverpool down to Wheeling to the west, the Laurel Highlands to the east, and stopped neatly on the W VA border to the south, as to not include Morgantown. That seemed a much more accurate radius. Really cool thing to play with.

Not necessarily. Philadelphia and Baltimore are metro areas that overlap multiple states. The NYC MSA has more people than NY State.

How is Paris, which is much denser than London, end up having much smaller population within the set radius? I don't get that.

And neither metro has a major body of water or undeveloped zone messing up the numbers.