Charlotte area population statistics

[KJHburg]

Interesting story about population growth in NC since 2020 from UNC Chapel Hill. 

Basically 6 counties have over 50% of the population growth including Meck, Cabarrus and Union counties in our area.  It also gives possible reasons for migration out of Meck but the county still did grow in population.  Driven by they state higher house prices which is true. 

https://wraltechwire.com/2022/09/15/how-best-to-spread-economic-wealth-in-north-carolina-consider-demographically-targeted-approaches/

[15895]

https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/rental-market/market-snapshots/apartment-construction-2022/

I love graphs and data. Rentcafe has a good article and great graphs on Metropolitan multifamily construction. I also think the figures for Raleigh Metro is excluding Durham Metro too.

 

 

 

[Richhamleigh, DC]

Came across information about the land area of US metro areas.  In the national narrative, the growth of NC (and SC) are lost to the news people because we are so multi-nodal.  Florida and Texas are also multi-nodal and the growth of the cities in Texas especially, deserve national attention.  However, Tennessee, Georgia, Washington State, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, among the fast growing states have one  dominate and rapidly growing city.  The Census definitions don't help outsiders see it either.  Raleigh-Durham should be one metro; Atlanta, GA is near nearly 3 times the land area of Charlotte (8200 sq. km).  If Charlotte's metro were 22,500 sq km it would include Greenville, Spartanburg, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Hickory and the population would be around 6,100,000 -essentially the same size as Atlanta, Roxwell, Alpharetta, Athens.

 

 

Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA	70,612
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ	37,725
Albuquerque, NM	24,042
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	24,029
Tucson, AZ	23,794
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	22,498
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO	21,616
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA	21,480
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX	21,388
Bakersfield, CA	21,062
Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV	20,439
St. Louis, MO-IL	20,366
Salt Lake City, UT	19,901
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	19,779
San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX	18,941
Kansas City, MO-KS	18,793
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI	18,638
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	17,311
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN	16,320
Tulsa, OK	16,237

 

Source:  https://www.statista.com/statistics/431912/top-20-metropolitan-areas-in-the-united-states-by-land-area/

[15895]

1 hour ago, Phillydog said:

Came across information about the land area of US metro areas.  In the national narrative, the growth of NC (and SC) are lost to the news people because we are so multi-nodal.  Florida and Texas are also multi-nodal and the growth of the cities in Texas especially, deserve national attention.  However, Tennessee, Georgia, Washington State, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, among the fast growing states have one  dominate and rapidly growing city.  The Census definitions don't help outsiders see it either.  Raleigh-Durham should be one metro; Atlanta, GA is near nearly 3 times the land area of Charlotte (8200 sq. km).  If Charlotte's metro were 22,500 sq km it would include Greenville, Spartanburg, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Hickory and the population would be around 6,100,000 -essentially the same size as Atlanta, Roxwell, Alpharetta, Athens.

 

 

Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA	70,612
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ	37,725
Albuquerque, NM	24,042
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	24,029
Tucson, AZ	23,794
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	22,498
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO	21,616
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA	21,480
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX	21,388
Bakersfield, CA	21,062
Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV	20,439
St. Louis, MO-IL	20,366
Salt Lake City, UT	19,901
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	19,779
San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX	18,941
Kansas City, MO-KS	18,793
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI	18,638
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	17,311
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN	16,320
Tulsa, OK	16,237

 

Source:  https://www.statista.com/statistics/431912/top-20-metropolitan-areas-in-the-united-states-by-land-area/

That’s probably true for a lot of areas versus those areas. For example, Baltimore MSA has over 200,000 more people than Charlotte MSA in a smaller land area than Charlotte’s MSA. If you were to bloat Baltimore to Atlanta’s size, it’d be over 9,000,000. 

Austin/San Antonio comes to mind too (a little closer distance than Charlotte/Winston by a few miles) . San Jose & San Francisco have BART, Caltrain and only 55 miles apart.

Im sure there’s plenty of other of asterisks. My rule of thumb is just go with what looks and feels bigger. 
 

 

[KJHburg]

Population density map of US and world n 3 D view.  You can see Charlotte as a bump.  

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/3d-mapping-the-worlds-largest-population-densities/

As many look to Europe about density the real densest cities are in Africa and Asia.  As my brother who lived in a city of 6 Million in China used to say "You don't know density until you see Asian cities"    Look at the maps closely and my brother lived in the 60 M population area of China's Pearl River Delta but not in any of the cities mentioned.

Close up of the USA  https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/density-map-full-usa.html

Did not know India was so densely populated.

 

[videtur quam contuor]

One state in India has more than 200 million population. Uttar Pradesh.

[JRCLT]

One state in India has more than 200 million population. Uttar Pradesh.

India is projected to overtake China in population in the coming decades.

[tozmervo]

On 12/4/2022 at 8:37 PM, JeanClt said:

India is projected to overtake China in population in the coming decades.

The UN projects that will occur in 2023. 

[videtur quam contuor]

 

China has a downward trajectory and China local government figures, which are assembled for national numbers, are not reliable. China may be in decline now. Naturalized citizens are extraordinarily rare in China. 1448 in 2010 per wiki. That is right, 1,448 total, not just for that year but for all time for those alive in 2010. 

As a boy my social studies books described Japan as a typical East Asia country with a highly crowded population spread across the country. Now the Kansai and Kanto areas, Osaka and Tokyo, have half the population and vast areas of the country are declining, stagnant, or depopulated. National population is in decline and there is no way to address the continuing and future decline. Things that seem immutable can change in less than a lifetime.

Japan has a small percentage of naturalized citizens but nothing as small as China. Mostly ethnic Japanese from elsewhere.

Korea is in population decline now and it is impossible for me to see how they can recover without unification with the North.

Natural growth powers India. About 1,000 naturalized citizens per year last five years.

If  one thinks immigration, long term residence, and citizenship is an issue in our country or other western nations it is no problem for these East Asian countries. It simply does not happen. 

Historically the four countries that have had active immigration policies are USA, Canada, Israel, Australia.

[go_vertical]

Also, there are some geopolitical experts out there that think China have overestimated/over counted their population for the last twenty or so years leading to the belief that India could have a higher population now.  If that is true, and knowing how China have heavily manipulated all sorts of data data coming out of the country it very well could be, that means that most likely the overcounted is the younger, working age portion of the polulace meaning that the elderly is a higher percentage than what is currently on paper.  

I saw something recently that estimated that the retired could make up more than 30% of the country by 2050 but in reality they're most likely not too far from that today.  That is massively unsustainable to maintain a population. 

[KJHburg]

Back to NC these 50 counties have the most native born NC residents.  Of course Meck and most close in ring counties are not on the list but Anson is #3 most NC county so to speak.  Rowan and Catawba are the only other 2 in our regions anywhere on this list. 

https://www.cbs17.com/news/north-carolina-news/counties-with-the-most-born-and-bred-residents-in-nc/

[KJHburg]

well this is interesting to play around with an economics consulting firm in DC projects NC will hit 11 M people in 2026

https://www.woodsandpoole.com/interactive-map/

[southslider]

Urban area numbers to be finally released just before year's end

[kayman]

6 hours ago, southslider said:

Urban area numbers to be finally released just before year's end

December 29th to be exact

[Hushpuppy321]

Seems like Mecklenburg has lost its luster.  Wake growing by 20K yearly to Meck’s 6.7K.  Seems like Charlotte may not reach 1M People until after 2030 at this rate.  Could be a good thing though…

[kermit]

1 hour ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

Seems like Mecklenburg has lost its luster.  Wake growing by 20K yearly to Meck’s 6.7K.  Seems like Charlotte may not reach 1M People until after 2030 at this rate.  Could be a good thing though…

Its too early to say for sure but if Charlotte’s growth is dropping because of higher cost of living issues, its possible that the growth that is still occurring is from folks at the top of the labor skill / wage ladder. If that is the case, its bullish for long-term knowledge industry growth. In addition, if we can ever figure out the formula for infill residential growth (not just entry-level multifamily) then the high-end job growth we may still be seeing may fuel more broad-based growth is likely to return quickly.

Having said that, population growth is driven much more by narrative (e.g. “Charlotte is a great place to move and get a good job”) than by reality (e.g. Charlotte actually has lots of jobs). We know this from our rapid population growth -during- the 2009 recession. So if Charlotte’s boomtown narrative has faded for the generation Z folks now city shopping then growth may never return.

Edited December 13, 2022 by kermit

[thenewkage95]

11 hours ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

Seems like Mecklenburg has lost its luster.  Wake growing by 20K yearly to Meck’s 6.7K.  Seems like Charlotte may not reach 1M People until after 2030 at this rate.  Could be a good thing though…

Where did you get those figures?

[KJHburg]

Charlotte metro area gained had the 6th fastest growing rate of any large metro area in the country in the last 5 years.  

Austin, Raleigh, Jacksonville, Orlando,  Nashville metro grew faster in percentage terms.  

Charlotte metro gained over 200,000 new residents in those 5 years

https://www.inspectionsupport.com/resources/the-fastest-growing-metropolitan-areas-in-the-u-s/

[Hushpuppy321]

14 hours ago, thenewkage95 said:

Where did you get those figures?

Looking for it - should’ve copied the link but it’s on here within the last page or two.  I believe it was the Census estimate for 2021 which showed much slower population growth for Mecklenburg County.  Wake still pulling them in big time each year.

[Havemercy]

On 12/14/2022 at 1:27 PM, Hushpuppy321 said:

Looking for it - should’ve copied the link but it’s on here within the last page or two.  I believe it was the Census estimate for 2021 which showed much slower population growth for Mecklenburg County.  Wake still pulling them in big time each year.

This link shows a good compare.  It's a good tool - can compare side-by-side multiple cities, counties, etc.  Mecklenburg growing much slower, but if you look at Cabarrus, York, Union and Gaston - all growing at a solid clip.  I pulled up the 4 large Atlanta metro counties all but 1 (Gwinnett) show population loss.  Gwinnett grew but very slow like Mecklenburg. 

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/wakecountynorthcarolina,mecklenburgcountynorthcarolina/PST045221

[Hushpuppy321]

11 hours ago, Havemercy said:

This link shows a good compare.  It's a good tool - can compare side-by-side multiple cities, counties, etc.  Mecklenburg growing much slower, but if you look at Cabarrus, York, Union and Gaston - all growing at a solid clip.  I pulled up the 4 large Atlanta metro counties all but 1 (Gwinnett) show population loss.  Gwinnett grew but very slow like Mecklenburg. 

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/wakecountynorthcarolina,mecklenburgcountynorthcarolina/PST045221

Thanks!

[Richhamleigh, DC]

North Carolina is the 3rd most popular destination for retirees in the US.  South Carolina is 4th.  Together, the Carolinas are #2 - leaving everyone but Florida in the dust (PS Georgia doesn't crack the top 10 and Tennessee, which likes to tout the lack of income tax is waaaaaaaay behind in the #8 spot.

https://smartasset.com/financial-advisor/where-retirees-are-moving-2021

[turbocraig]

1 hour ago, Phillydog said:

North Carolina is the 3rd most popular destination for retirees in the US.  South Carolina is 4th.  Together, the Carolinas are #2 - leaving everyone but Florida in the dust (PS Georgia doesn't crack the top 10 and Tennessee, which likes to tout the lack of income tax is waaaaaaaay behind in the #8 spot.

https://smartasset.com/financial-advisor/where-retirees-are-moving-2021

That doesn’t surprise me.  I’ve said it before, but my parents retired to Ballantyne from NY at the end of 2018.  And two of my friends’ parents have also relo’d here in the past few years - both from FL.  My mom’s brother and his wife are coming for a visit next month from the Bay Area.  They’re considering moving when my uncle retires in the next couple of years.  It is surprising though, how many moved out.  Doubly impressive that despite that we still ranked so highly.  

[Richhamleigh, DC]

According to this site, Raleigh and Charlotte -- after Tampa and Ocala, FL are the two "big" cities retirees are moving to.  NC is well-represented here as well.  Again, GA and TN -- not so much.  People with money and education are choosing quality over quantity IMHO -- and NC (and SC to a lesser extent) offer something in this country that few other states can -- subtropical beaches and big mountains where it snows; small cool towns and increasingly cosmopolitan cities with funky smaller cities mixed in (Charleston, Asheville, Wilmington).  We also offer the best colleges and universities in the South which generate continuing education opportunities and contribute to the coolness of many of our college towns (Davidson, Elon, Boone).  Add some of the best health care in the country and NC is a truly remarkable place and people are finding this out.   In a way, the fact that NC isn't a bloviator (i.e. GA, TX, TN) means that it still feels like a "secret".  For better or worse, the "secret" is getting harder and harder to keep as more and more people discover just how amazing NC (and the Carolinas) truly are. 

https://www.movebuddha.com/blog/moving-trends/#:~:text=Big city spotlight%3A %231 Tampa,%2C and %2315 San Antonio.

Edited December 22, 2022 by Phillydog

[Temeteron]

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/2022-population-estimates.html
 

State estimates are out!! NC was 3rd highest numerical increase after only Texas and Florida. Very impressive!  Georgia also had high gains.

 

States continuing to lose population:

California, NY, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia and now Oregon.  

Edited December 23, 2022 by Temeteron