UP Forum Growth Rates

[Rardy]

K...some of you will get this, some won't.

I wondered what the fastest growing U.S. forums on UP were, and which ones were growing faster, so I tracked it. I found some pretty interesting stuff.

If UP city subforums were indicative of the population size of the city itself, the population of the U.S. would overwhelming be located along the I-85 corridor - a megalopolis between Atlanta and Richmond. There would also be significant clusters in southern Michigan, a high density corridor along I-95 between New York and Boston, and smaller corridors along Interstates 40, 20, and 10. The Midwest and West would be practically devoid of people (there are no city subforums between Kansas City and San Francisco).

Ever imagine a world where Greenville, SC is the 3rd largest city and New York is the second smallest? This would be it! The ten largest U.S. "cities" are in order: Charlotte, Grand Rapids, Greenville, Providence, Orlando, Nashville, Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Raleigh-Durham, Tallahassee, and Richmond.

Now for the growth rates. Ever imagine a world where Nebraska is far and away the fastest growing state, and the Midwest is the fastest growing region? Again, you're in it! [a disclaimer: Nebraska is also the smallest state forum, so it's easy to have the fastest growth rate]

Following Nebraska for the fastest growing states are (in order): Nevada, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, California, Louisiana, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

The fastest growing cities, though, are mostly Southern. Huntsville, Alabama comes in first, followed by San Francisco, Springfield MO, Savannah, Mobile, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Statesboro GA, Memphis, and Greensboro NC.

[Lowerdeck]

Not terribly surprised. Seems there's a ton of members from Grand Rapids, Providence, and the Carolinas.

[nowensone]

Rardy, you have WAY too much time on your hands.... very cool.

[richyb83]

Nice break-down by our urban specialist Rardy! The Carolina's going for the undisputed UP Heavyweight Title??

[Lowerdeck]

If UP was America...

North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Montana, Delaware, New Mexico, Iowa, and Kansas all don't exist. Nebraska is the newest state. Maryland swallows DC and northern Virginia, then calls itself Balt-Wash. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont all combine into one state called "Northern New England". Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and all the territories become one state "Outside Continental"

And as for the most populous states (by current amount of topics):

1. Michigan 3770

North Carolina 3215

Florida 2356

Tennessee 2272

South Carolina 2268

6. Georgia 927

Rhode Island 846

Arkansas 828

Pennsylvania 782

Alabama 762

11. Connecticut 706

Virginia (outside DC metro) 504

Louisiana 483

Outside Continental 414

Massachusetts 366

16. Texas 359

Missouri 348

Kentucky 309

North New England 267

New York 181

21. Minnesota 158

California 139

Washington 134

Mississippi 131

Arizona 130

26. Balt-Wash 119

Ohio 108

West Virginia 102

Oklahoma 89

Illinois 87

31. New Jersey 59

Colorado 59

Oregon 55

Utah 50

Indiana 38

Idaho 27

Nevada 21

38. Nebraska 20

[Rardy]

^Balt-Wash?

Yay for Nebraska!!!! We need more traffic over there!

[Lowerdeck]

Just think, the new state you're carrying all by yourself will become slightly bigger than Nevada pretty soon. And watch out Radioactive Man, the sun is exploding!!! Err... watch out Idaho, you're gonna get passed by the fastest growing and newest state.

[UptownNewOrleans]

Like most cities, the forums that are struggling should be annexed.

[Rardy]

Just think, the new state you're carrying all by yourself will become slightly bigger than Nevada pretty soon. And watch out Radioactive Man, the sun is exploding!!! Err... watch out Idaho, you're gonna get passed by the fastest growing and newest state.

[Lowerdeck]

Like most cities, the forums that are struggling should be annexed.

[Alabadrock]

Thank you!!

Lol, I've been waiting soooo long for someone to do something like his. I'm not surprised at the results though. I've noticed that the Alabama forum has been growing quite fast. Though, the fact that the Huntsville-Decatur forum is growing the fastest is kinda surprising, considering that we sometimes go days without posts. That is if you're going by post growth.

Again, thank you for doing this, very interesting stats.

[MadVlad]

Nah...I've got my sights set on Connecticut

[Rardy]

I agree. A forum for Nebraska and Idaho still seem odd to me. Along with a seperate sub-forum for Manhattan and the other four boroughs, then the main NYS forum gets Long Island/Westchester/Rockland. Odd.

I still find it funny that New York and New Jersey though seemingly have no traffic.

[richyb83]

You are right Rardy...Louisiana with less than 4.5 million people and Texas with approx. 20 million is mind boggling!!! The active/dead cycles on UP can get interesting.

Great work getiing the Nebraska forums off and running! Omaha is on the move.

[Neo]

Good work on the stats of the forums! It is certainly interesting to see the dynamics of this site and what cities and states are the most active. We're ever experimenting and looking at the states, cities and countries to see which ones are possibly up and coming here.

[runawayjim]

I still find it funny that New York and New Jersey though seemingly have no traffic.

[Rardy]

i think the cities that have the more surprising lower traffic is due to the fact that they already have a bunch of online forums that people belong to that started before UP came along. those that have the most traffic didn't have anything like UP before.

[dgreco]

i still find it amazing the big cities don't have followings on here, does the growth rate of the actual cities have anything to do with it? I dont know the numbers but lets say providence is growing at 200% the more people will search and come, where a NYC is growing at 10% less going on less interest? I know i came here back when they had the building boom i guess you could call it. Did a google search and found the most info here, and became addicted.

[runawayjim]

i still find it amazing the big cities don't have followings on here, does the growth rate of the actual cities have anything to do with it? I dont know the numbers but lets say providence is growing at 200% the more people will search and come, where a NYC is growing at 10% less going on less interest? I know i came here back when they had the building boom i guess you could call it. Did a google search and found the most info here, and became addicted.

[Lowerdeck]

I will venture away from the Conn/Mass usual sections. Mostly for Northern New England, New York, New Jersey, or Balt-Wash. Once in a blue moon I may see something elsewhere in the regions and check it out, like today in the Southeastern highway topic.

[JerseyBoy]

Like runawayjim mentioned, a reason bigger cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc. don't have a bigger presence on UP is because they have forums (many I might add) of their own. The monopoly our competitors have on bigger cities is amazing and if only we could channel just a small percentage of their members from those areas to UP, we'd be in business. But, that brings up another point of mine, I like how UP is more dedicated to the "less-focused on" cities. I (like many others) found this site by googling for a certain project pertaining to my area and loved how smaller metropolitan regions in the US had a voice as well as each state having their own forum, unlike other sites who split the US up into regions and then declare a free-for-all.

[runawayjim]

I will venture away from the Conn/Mass usual sections. Mostly for Northern New England, New York, New Jersey, or Balt-Wash. Once in a blue moon I may see something elsewhere in the regions and check it out, like today in the Southeastern highway topic.

[ohioaninSC]

I know when I lived in Ohio, we had a statewide urban forum, and in Columbus, we had a couple as well, so I do understand it is hard to get certain forums going here. It seems like this forum is very busy for the Carolinas, that's why I'm here, but I do read what's going on in some of the other cities.

Interesting stats non-the-less.