Largest midwest cities ranked by city-core population

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Wed Sep 11, 2013 8:35 pm

Saw this over on SSC. Pretty interesting, Omaha stacks up surprisingly well.

Within 1 mile of city hall:
1. Chicago: 63,120
2. Minneapolis: 31,036
3. Milwaukee: 21,587
4. Cincinnati: 17,681
5. St. Louis: 17,359
6. Grand Rapids: 16,099
7. Omaha: 15,582
8. Indianapolis: 14,058
9. Kansas City: 13,709
10. Akron: 12,479
11. Cleveland: 9,471
12. Dayton: 9,182
13. Detroit: 8,709
14. Toledo: 8,304
15. Columbus: 7,416

Within 2 miles of city hall:
1. Chicago: 181,714
2. Minneapolis: 123,526
3. Milwaukee: 86,261
4. Grand Rapids: 75,613
5. Cincinnati: 65,264
6. Omaha: 56,244
7. Toledo: 55,739
8. Akron: 53,715
9. Columbus: 49,667
10. Indianapolis: 45,079
11. Dayton: 41,053
12. St. Louis: 40,184
13. Kansas City: 32,900
14. Detroit: 32,810
15. Cleveland: 32,193

Within 3 miles of city hall:
1. Chicago: 318,522
2. Minneapolis: 228,927
3. Milwaukee: 208,776
4. Cincinnati: 138,235
5. Columbus: 134,826
6. Grand Rapids: 127,535
7. Akron: 122,395
8. Omaha: 113,044
9. Indianapolis: 102,412
10. Dayton: 101,817
11. Toledo: 94,058
12. St. Louis: 94,038
13. Kansas City: 77,388
14. Cleveland: 64,721
15. Detroit: 64,046

Within 4 miles of city hall:
1. Chicago: 508,949
2. Minneapolis: 325,198
3. Milwaukee: 319,111
4. Columbus: 221,466
5. Cincinnati: 205,624
6. Grand Rapids: 184,887
7. Akron: 177,674
8. Omaha: 168,724
9. Toledo: 166,569
10. Indianapolis: 166,266
11. St. Louis: 160,117
12. Kansas City: 155,802
13. Dayton: 152,789
14. Cleveland: 139,945
15. Detroit: 109,104

Within 5 miles of city hall:
1. Chicago: 764,400
2. Minneapolis: 448,499
3. Milwaukee: 438,629
4. Cincinnati: 315,665
5. Columbus: 314,557
6. Omaha: 253,723
7. St. Louis: 251,432
8. Grand Rapids: 247,473
9. Indianapolis: 240,970
10. Akron: 227,825
11. Cleveland: 227,309
12. Kansas City: 216,483
13. Dayton: 214,614
14. Toledo: 213,529
15. Detroit: 198,341

source: http://allcolumbusdata.com/?p=1079

guitarguy · Post by **guitarguy** » Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:50 pm

I find that a very impressive set of data for Omaha.. makes you feel good about the density in the Eastern part of the city

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Wed Sep 11, 2013 10:03 pm

The most impressive stat to me on that blog post was the population change within 5 miles of the city core. Omaha was only one of two midwestern cities to actually gain population in that area and actually grew more than Minneapolis, the only other positive city. Obviously we are doing pretty well downtown, but what that really shows is how strong our older suburbs are doing right now. In a lot of cities you can tell the immediate core is booming and the far away suburbs are booming, but the older inner rings are being vacated at alarming rates. Omaha has done an incredible job of maintaining its neighborhoods and making them attractive.

Varsity · Post by **Varsity** » Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:06 pm

Awesome find. Thanks!

I didn't that that Omaha would be ranked that high. Very impressive and is only getting better with all the new apartment projects downtown in the last few years (and the next few) Those numbers are only through 2010

Varsity · Post by **Varsity** » Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:07 pm

Awesome find. Thanks!

I didn't that that Omaha would be ranked that high. Very impressive and is only getting better with all the new apartment projects downtown in the last few years (and the next few) Those numbers are only through 2010

Varsity · Post by **Varsity** » Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:09 pm

Actually on that note.. would anyone happen to have an estimate of the population capacity of all u/c and proposed apartment in the downtown area? (Maybe even including the new slate and highline and any other new ones since 2010 since those came after the data was collected?) It would be interesting to see!

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:32 pm

Varsity wrote:Actually on that note.. would anyone happen to have an estimate of the population capacity of all u/c and proposed apartment in the downtown area? (Maybe even including the new slate and highline and any other new ones since 2010 since those came after the data was collected?) It would be interesting to see!

My unofficial count finished or u/c since 2010 is 1,215 units with 250 announced in downtown.

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:40 pm

What was most surprising was the low population for KC. Apparently a lot of the land in this area is in a flood plain which prevents as many people to live in that area.

Post by **Brad** » Thu Sep 12, 2013 3:25 pm

Linkin5 wrote:What was most surprising was the low population for KC. Apparently a lot of the land in this area is in a flood plain which prevents as many people to live in that area.

KC has lots and lots of industrial areas too.

cdub · Post by **cdub** » Thu Sep 12, 2013 5:58 pm

The numbers are also skewed because city hall is so close to the river. I would guess most of these towns arent as one sided.

RNcyanide · Post by **RNcyanide** » Thu Sep 12, 2013 6:47 pm

cdub wrote:The numbers are also skewed because city hall is so close to the river. I would guess most of these towns arent as one sided.

Chicago's city hall is pretty close to Lake Michigan. Milwaukee's city hall is close to Lake Michigan too. Toledo's is bound by the Michigan state line and Lake Ontario and Cleveland's city hall is right on Lake Ontario, too. Cincinnati's is pretty close to the Ohio River. St. Louis' is really close to the Mississippi. A lot of midwestern cities share in Omaha's offset downtown area.

Indianapolis, Columbus, Akron, and Minneapolis are more centrally located.

TitosBuritoBarn · Post by **TitosBuritoBarn** » Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:32 pm

I would think they'd count the population in Council Bluffs.

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 1:57 am

The figures look impressive...until you realize that the absolute worst that metro Omaha could possibly rate among this group of 15 Midwestern cities...is 15th.

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 5:17 pm

nativeomahan wrote:The figures look impressive...until you realize that the absolute worst that metro Omaha could possibly rate among this group of 15 Midwestern cities...is 15th.

What?

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 11:27 pm

Linkin5 wrote:
nativeomahan wrote:The figures look impressive...until you realize that the absolute worst that metro Omaha could possibly rate among this group of 15 Midwestern cities...is 15th.
What?

This is a closed group of 15 Midwest metros. It isn't a comparison of anywhere else in America.

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 12:52 am

nativeomahan wrote:
Linkin5 wrote:
nativeomahan wrote:The figures look impressive...until you realize that the absolute worst that metro Omaha could possibly rate among this group of 15 Midwestern cities...is 15th.
What?
This is a closed group of 15 Midwest metros. It isn't a comparison of anywhere else in America.

Gotcha. I would still say considering our metro size this is pretty good though.

guitarguy · Post by **guitarguy** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 5:47 am

This study also makes it very obvious why Detroit is in financial ruin having a metro of 5 mil and only 100k within 5 miles of downtown.. When cities like Omaha with 900k metro smash you in that area you know its bad for Detroit..