[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

it all depends on how you slice and dice things.



by Urban Area (2010):

cleveland: 1,780,673
cincinnati: 1,624,827
columbus: 1,368,035

(as the fastest growing of the 3, columbus has almost certainly closed this gap a bit over the past 9 years)




by MSA (2018):

cincinnati: 2,190,209
columbus: 2,106,541
cleveland: 2,057,009



by CSA (2018):

cleveland: 3,599,264
columbus: 2,509,850
cincinnati: 2,272,152



cincy is either 1st, 2nd, or 3rd depending on metric.

in reality, these three cities are all extremely comparable to each other size-wise, which is pretty remarkable.

cleveland only jumps way ahead at the CSA level because it pulls in Akron and Canton, roughly 30 and 50 miles south of the city.

i can't think of another state whose 3 alpha cities are all that closely bunched together size-wise at the MSA level.

The thing with the MSA numbers here though is that separating Akron (and all of Summit and Portage Counties) out of the Cleveland MSA makes zero practical sense. Summit and Portage Counties are just as much, if not more, Cleveland's suburban and exurban areas than they are Akron's... the northern portions specifically for Cleveland. I mean, the Cavs used to play in in Richfield (much more so a Cleveland suburb) in Summit County... Sea World Ohio was in Aurora (Cleveland suburb) in Portage County... Cleveland's major outdoor concert venue where the summer tours and the Cleveland Symphony play is in Summit County. Yet somehow, both of those counties are all Akron's when it comes to the numbers -- that's just not reality.