Biggest US Cities (1776-2035)

This video shows the biggest U.S. cities between the years 1776 and 2035.

The years after 2020 are estimations.

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[jamesyoung]

In 1833, Chicago had a population of about 200. By 1900, it was the 5th largest city on earth. That’s one of the most explosive growth rates of any city anywhere at anytime.

[KarenSieradski]

Wait, it's 2035? How long have we been in quarantine?

[pahtar]

This would be a bit better if you made it clear when cities combined:
Northern Liberties, Southward, and Spring Garden are now part of Philadelphia.
And of course Brooklyn is now part of New York.

[tjr]

When Brooklyn merged with the rest of New York it was game over.

[Luke-zxnx]

It’s pretty crazy to think that New York already had one million residents in 1872

[jchang]

Is it just a coincidence that Philly ended up with a projected 1.776 million? 🤔😉

[marsgal]

You can see the first westward wave in the 19th century (Chicago, St. Louis), the decline of the rust belt (Detroit), then the enormous growth of the sun belt. Cars and air conditioning were helpful.

[hughmungusbungusfungus]

I think it's funny that most of the older cities: NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc. are shown to be shrinking until the current year and then they start growing again. Kinda shows the imprecision of future predictions

[mimicotom]

As a retired stats analyst, I find your data and graphs fascinating. Well done.

[justamaninTN]

I shed a tear for Detroit. My grandparents lived here in the 50’s and 60’s when it was one of the best cities in the US.

[Karen-qzio]

So how long do you want to stay on top for?
New York: Yes

[antoinec]

Wow, Baltimore was once bigger than Chicago and LA.

[superbrownbrown]

*The only thing I don't like about the way this is depicted here is when Brooklyn (Kings) merged with New York (Manhattan) and also the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island (Richmond) in 1898. They made it seem like everyone was leaving Brooklyn like it was on fire with the numbers dwindling down on the chart. The people didn't go anywhere. Brooklyn just lost its autonomy as an independent city.*

[johna]

My wife and I went to Chicago a couple years ago, probably the coolest city I’ve ever been too. Beautiful city. Amazing food. Very clean. And so so so much to do. All the time. I honestly wish I could go back.

[brennocalderan]

6:04 You can see that New York's numbers were decreasing during the 70s, that's because of the Fiscal crisis. US economic stagnation hit the city particularly hard, amplified by a large movement of middle-class residents to the suburbs, which drained the city of tax revenue. In February 1975, New York entered a serious fiscal crisis and was $10 billion in debt.

[papalog]

It’s crazy to me St. Louis was once the 4th largest city and at one point had 850k people. I think it’s probably in the 200ks now.

[hughjass]

almost all big cities in the 1900s went to hell except nyc and philidelphia

[firstnamelastname]

Lol a lot of the big cities at the start were just neighborhoods of Philly before they unified

[mirzaahmed]

Brooklyn didn't lose population slowly like it shows in the video. It merged with New York in 1898. It should have shown Brooklyn falling of the chart and New York gaining about 800, 000 people in 1898, not a slow loss for one and a slow increase for the other.

[jasonfoitek]

Chicago and Minneapolis are top 7 in 1776? That's pretty surprising, seeing as how they weren't founded until 1833 and 1850 respectively. Also surprising since the British would not allow Americans to settle west of the Appalachians. I'm thinking your beautiful data is off.