Most Populated Cities in the United States of America

This shows the top 20 most populous cities in the United States of America from 1790 to 2021.

The largest city in the united states is New York City with a population of 8 million people.

[Serafim]

The rise and fall of Detroit is just stunning.

[DanRyan-thnm]

Such a stunning decline of the rust belt cities.

St. Louis, Cleveland, and Detroit totally fall off the list, after each being in the top 5. I also note the spectacular growth of Chicago, before fading behind LA. I still think of Chicago as the real second city, because Chicago is so much more dense than LA.

A lot of Sun Belt cities have giant land masses of literal suburban space. Ex: Charlotte, Jacksonville, Phoenix, Dallas.

[nunyabizness]

To put things in perspective - Houston land area: 640 square miles, Phoenix: 518, San Antonio 498, Dallas 339. Chicago 227, Philadelphia 134, Seattle 84, San Francisco 47.

[RSPCT]

Detroit got up to 4th then went all the way off the map and lost 1.2 million people

[itsrainingbigmacs]

Chicago:
Los Angeles:
New York City: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[michealfarley]

Charleston, SC was the fourth largest city in the US in 1790. It was just behind Boston.

[RenR]

Crazy how big Chicago, Philly & Detroit were before declining.

[benjaminbarry]

This needs to include metros. Several have been left off because their main city is smaller.

[texasborn]

Fort Worth skyrocketed from nowhere !

[fromthehaven]

*1981*
Cleveland: What? WHAT?
Columbus: Oh, come on, a lot of the Ohio State students like it here!

[EllieVelli]

Knowing Newark as it is today, it was on this list way longer than I expected it to be

[mikeberry]

Super-entertaining approach. It's crazy how late in the game Los Angeles and Houston show up and then quickly barrel up to the top. New Orleans once in 3rd place then eventually drops off the chart.

[monicasojka]

I am from Baltimore. It also had a lot of immigrants because of the harbor and the railroads.

[splitsee]

As someone that is in Louisiana, its so sad that corruption and just overall the decline of a need for our port has caused New Orleans to fall, as Houston almost becomes like New Orleans with its proximity to us. I hope things get better, but especially after 2005 it seems like everything is doomed to slowly fall off, and eventually New Orleans will probably sink.

[lexiespihlmann]

I live near St. Louis and I never knew how big it once was. I knew that the population has been declining but the fact that it was once over 800k+ people is crazzy. It's just under 300k now.

[EllieVelli]

Alternative Title: “Watch Detroit fumble a million residents.”

[revinhatol]

1790s-1850s: Rise of Baltimore
1800s-1840s: Rise of New Orleans
1850s-1920s: Rise of Chicago
1850s-1890s: Rise of San Francisco
1900s-1950s: Rise of Los Angeles
1940s-1970s: Rise of Houston
1950s-1980s: Rise of Dallas
1950s-1990s: Rise of San Diego
1950s-2010s: Rise of San Antonio
1970s-1990s: Rise of Phoenix
2000s-2010s: Rise of Fort Worth

[epicriftx]

The way Baltimore was on this list the entire time just for it to 200k+ people in the last 40 years is so sad

[marccru]

The Mississippi river cities have really had a tough go at it in the 21st century.

[jacksonhaslam]

One addition: In 1844, Nauvoo, Illinois would've been on this list, as it was only just smaller than Chicago and would've been bigger than Worcester, Massachusetts