[llamaorama]

I don't agree with this list.

- Large scale latino immigration and birth rates won't be as relevant to population growth over the next 25 years as it was the previous 25. Immigration from other parts of the world, in an era in which the internet provides connections to services and culture plus an increasingly tolerant and diverse mainstream society, might mean that where newer waves of immigrants, who may occupy a different economic strata than the previous ones, choose to settle could be unpredictable and look very different from what we see now.

- Houston had 15 years of anomalous growth supercharged by oil and gas that can't be extrapolated into the future.

- A new generation of fast-growing, popular cities like Austin, Nashville, Raleigh, Salt Lake City, etc are going to compete with the bigger metros. While they won't change the ranked order of the top cities that much, they will cut into the absolute numbers so all these cities in the top 10 will end up being somewhat smaller than what is predicted.

- Unpredictable, disruptive forces like the ability to work remotely is going to shut off the tap of migration to huge expensive metros from smaller towns and regional cities. People who grow up in or go to college in smaller places won't face as much pressure to move to the largest cities to further their career goals - only the top talent going to silicon valley or wall street would still do this, the middle class professionals will remain in or return to their hometown to buy a house, etc.

- US birth rates and natural demographics seem to be on track to peak lower and go negative faster than originally predicted. The Trump era combined with competition from other developed nations and economic growth across the rest of the world has also permanently reduced immigration somewhat. So over the long term the population of all these places will again, be less than predicted.

Therefore, my prediction is:

All these cities will have a total population less than presented by this list, regardless of rank.

1. New York will still be #1 just because it's huge now, a self fulfilling prophecy
2. Los Angeles will still be #2 but it will be smaller due to higher than expected domestic out-migration and collapse in immigration
3. DFW will be bigger than Chicago but not by as much
4. Chicago will slip behind Dallas but it will not fall behind Houston
5. Houston will grow but not by nearly as much as this says, because the O&G industry is going to gradually fade into the sunset while the number of latino immigrants will fall off and their kids will move out and not have big families.
....

Inland Empire will stop growing because of California's issues and lack of immigration. Phoenix and Miami will keep growing but at a slower pace.

Philly, Boston, DC, etc, will then rank higher than these sunbelt cities. However SF will likely be lower or fall more than expected in this list so it might cancel out.

No. 15 might not be MSP, it could be a wildcard