The Census has released its population estimates for 2020

[kphoger]

I guess I don't really understand under what circumstances someone would correctly answer "other" instead of "two or more".

What would you put if you were an Arab?  "Asian"?

What about Hispanic people who don't consider themselves to be "white"?

What about people of Quechua descent?  Are they "American Indian"?

[JayhawkCO]

Or if you're Habesha, the main ethic group of Ethiopia.  They don't call themselves "black" but they do call the southern ethic groups like Oromo, et al "black".

Chris

[DTComposer]

BREAKING: 2020 county subdivision (town/city) populations appear to be available for all places with a population of 5,000 or more.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219

Just search for your town or city and the April 1, 2020 census population will be on the 4th line.

Unfortunately, my county has two towns with less than 5,000 people, so I can't quite complete my cross check and make sure it adds up correctly. But it's tracking very closely (751 of 759k with the two sub-5k towns remaining), so I would assume the data is official.

Just wanted to follow up with this and note that nydatabases.com by democratandchronicle.com has a resource where you can get any 2020 census population, even for places outside New York, and even for places with less than 5,000 residents:
https://data.democratandchronicle.com/census/

I've completed cross-checks for most of the counties in New York state, and they've all added up correctly so far - there have been a few odd results, but most of those have been populous enough to check the census.gov link above and they've all matched up, so if they do indeed prove to be incorrect, I'm sure they'll be found and ironed out in time.

In any case, it's pretty exciting to now have all the 2020 census data, at least for all practical purposes!

Thanks for this! I see that they have CSA figures available, which I hadn't found on the Census Bureau site as yet. Here are the CSAs with over 4 million:

1	New York-Newark	23,583,649
2	Los Angeles-Long Beach	18,644,680
3	Chicago-Naperville	9,986,960
4	Washington-Baltimore-Arlington	9,973,383
5	San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland	9,714,023
6	Boston-Worcester-Providence	8,466,186
7	Dallas-Fort Worth	8,121,108
8	Philadelphia-Reading-Camden	7,379,700
9	Houston-The Woodlands	7,312,270
10	Atlanta-Athens-Clarke County-Sandy Springs	6,930,423
11	Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale	6,868,652
12	Detroit-Ann Arbor	5,424,742
13	Seattle-Tacoma	4,953,421
14	Phoenix-Mesa	4,899,104
15	Orlando-Lakeland-Deltona	4,222,422
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul	4,078,788

[Bruce]

My county gained 16% overall (to 828K), lost a bit of its white population, and saw 60%+ gains for most non-white groups.

[kernals12]

Pardon me for getting a bit political: I think America could easily handle 1 billion people, in theory, but the problem is, assuming this tripling of our population is due to immigration, most of this growth would occur in our already overcrowded, overpriced metro areas, not in the vast empty places that could easily handle a crush of people.

[Rothman]

Pardon me for getting a bit political: I think America could easily handle 1 billion people, in theory, but the problem is, assuming this tripling of our population is due to immigration, most of this growth would occur in our already overcrowded, overpriced metro areas, not in the vast empty places that could easily handle a crush of people.

Three times as many people.

So much for the Bread Basket of the World.

[kernals12]

Pardon me for getting a bit political: I think America could easily handle 1 billion people, in theory, but the problem is, assuming this tripling of our population is due to immigration, most of this growth would occur in our already overcrowded, overpriced metro areas, not in the vast empty places that could easily handle a crush of people.

Three times as many people.

So much for the Bread Basket of the World.

Tripling our population would give us a population density comparable to France

[Rothman]

Pardon me for getting a bit political: I think America could easily handle 1 billion people, in theory, but the problem is, assuming this tripling of our population is due to immigration, most of this growth would occur in our already overcrowded, overpriced metro areas, not in the vast empty places that could easily handle a crush of people.

Three times as many people.

So much for the Bread Basket of the World.

Tripling our population would give us a population density comparable to France

Are you including Alaska in your land area?

[Bruce]

All that growth would need to happen near jobs, which happen to be in cities because of the natural efficiency of cities. Not to mention living near urban amenities, which can't quite be replicated by digital replacements (as we've seen through the past year of trying).

[kernals12]

All that growth would need to happen near jobs, which happen to be in cities because of the natural efficiency of cities. Not to mention living near urban amenities, which can't quite be replicated by digital replacements (as we've seen through the past year of trying).

Jobs follow people. Phoenix went from a backwater to a thriving metropolis not because of the jobs it had, but because its warm climate lured huge numbers of snowbirds and so industry followed with jobs.

[SP Cook]

I don't know if I would call the economy of retirement places like Arizona and Florida "industry" .  But I really don't know a better term. 

In a retirement region, people move there, and then spend wealth earned elsewhere at an earlier time.  And, yes, services develop to supply those people, and then it, no irony intended, snowballs and the region grows.

That is nice, but it presupposes the orignators, which are people with cash to spend and no need of a job.  It does not really translate w/o that spark.  You can have the most ecotopic place on earth, and nobody who needs work is going to move there and wait for jobs to develop.

[MikieTimT]

Population density may also be increasing faster in Fayetteville (which would make sense, as that's where the university is).

There have been several apartment developments over the last 10 years, and there are still subdivisions with track homes going up along Wedington Dr., and still lots of houses going up along the roads/streets that intersect it.  Contrary to popular belief, there's still a fair amount of pastureland on the west side that will become subdivisions over the next decade, along Wedington Dr. and still some on Mt. Comfort Rd.  And lots of houses have gone up along AR-16 just until it drops down to the first Illinois River crossing for those that wanted seclusion, but still fairly convenient access, however that's outside of the current city limits.  Anything developed late last year and all of this year won't be counted until the next census, though.  In a nutshell, the boom continues even faster than what was counted in the 2020 census as the stimulus just threw gas on the development fire over the last year.  Springdale has a better business climate (job growth), but Fayetteville tends to have the more desirable residential environment (somewhat of a bedroom community despite its size), unless you have a problem with paying fines for cutting down trees on your own property.  That's why we're just outside the city limits ourselves.

[kphoger]

Jobs follow people.

This.

Yes, people tend to not move where there aren't jobs.  But, as population increases for whatever reason, jobs are created.

This, by the way, is why immigrants don't actually "steal our jobs".  As far as the jobs economy is concerned, there's no difference between (1) an illegal immigrant from Guatemala taking a job, (2) a born-and-raised US citizen moving from two states over and taking the same job, and (3) a child getting it as his or her first job out of high school.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Related to this, here are the MSA changes in the last 10 years:
AL:
- Alexander City is deleted, and Talladega expands into Coosa county. The former is then recreated, initially only from Tallapoosa, later Coosa switches back.
- Atmore micro is created from Escambia county.
- Walker county splits from Birmingham to form Jasper micro.
- Daphne is upgraded.
- Eufaula is deleted, then recreated (see also GA).
- Fort Payne is deleted, then recreated.
- Dale county splits from Enterprise to form Ozark micro.
- Tuscaloosa retires from Greene county and expands into Pickens instead. It then expands again into Greene.
- Tuskegee is deleted.
- Valley is merged into La Grange.
AK: no changes
AZ:
- Safford retires from Greenlee county.
- Sierra Vista is upgraded.
AR:
- Fort Smith retires from Franklin county, then expands into it again (see also OK).
- Hope is deleted, then recreated.
- Malvern micro is created from Hot Spring county.
- Texarkana expands into Little River county.
CA:
- Bishop is deleted.
CO:
- Craig micro is created from Moffat county.
- Edwards retires from Lake county.
- Glenwood Springs micro is created from Garfield and Pitkin counties.
- Steamboat Springs micto is created from Routt county.
CT:
- Willimantic is merged into Worcester.
DE:
- Seaford is merged into Salisbury. DE becomes the 3rd state to be entirely covered by metro areas (see also MD).
FL:
- Crestview expands into Walton county.
- Gainesville expands into Levy county.
- Homosassa Springs is upgraded.
- Panama City expands into Gulf county.
- Sebring is upgraded
- The Villages is upgraded (it should be called "The Cities" now ).
GA:
- Atlanta expands into Morgan county.
- Augusta expands into Lincoln county.
- Columbis expands into Stewart county.
- Douglas retires from Atkinson county, then expands again into it.
- Eufaula is deleted, then recreated (see also AL).
- Fitzgerald retires from Irwin county.
- Fort Valley is merged into Warner Robins. In addition the latter expands into Pulaski county.
- Jefferson micro is created from Jackson county.
HI:
- Kahului is upgraded
ID:
- Hailey micro is created from Blaine, Camas and Lincoln counties. It then retires from Lincoln.
- Pocatello retires from Power county, then expands again into it.
- Sandpoint micro is create from Bonner county.
- Twin Falls is upgraded
IL:
- Bloomington expands into De Witt county, then retires from it.
- Marion is merged into Carbondale. The combined area is upgraded.
- Fort Madison expands into Hancock county.
- Galesburg retires from Warren county.
- Harrisburg is deleted.
- Mount Vernon retires from Hamilton county.
IN:
- Bloomington retires from Greene county.
- Cincinnati retires from Franklin county and expands into Union instead. It then expands into Franklin again.
- Evansville retires from Gibson county (see also KY).
- Kokomo retires from Tipton county.
- Scottsburg is merged into Louisville. It is then split again (see also KY).
IA:
- Boone is merged into Ames.
- Newton is merged into Des Moines.
- Fairfield micro is created from Jefferson county.
- Muscatine retires from Louisa county.
- Ottumwa expands into Davis county, then retires from it.
- Pella is deleted, then recreated.
KS:
- Emporia retires from Chase county, then expands again into it.
- Garden City expands into Kearny county.
- Junction City is merged into Manhattan.
- Franklin county splits from Kansas City to form Ottawa micro.
- Wichita expands into Kingsman county.
KY:
- Bowling Green expands into Allen county.
- Central City is deleted, then recreated.
- Evansville retires from Webster county (see also IN).
- Huntington expands into Carter county (see also WV).
- Corbin is merged into London. The latter then expands into Knox county, then into Clay.
- Nelson county splits from Louisville to form Bardsville micro (see also IN).
- Maysville retires from Lewis county.
- Richmond retires from Rockcastle county and expands into Estill instead.
- Union City retires from Fulton county.
LA:
- Pierre Part is deleted. Later, Baton Rouge expands into Assumption parish.
- Hammond is upgraded.
- Jennings is deleted, then recreated.
- Abbeville, Crowley and New Iberia are merged into Lafayette.
- Minden is merged into Shreveport, then split again.
- Ruston retires from Jackson parish.
- Tallulah is deleted.
ME:
- Rockland is deleted.
MD:
- Ocean Pines is merged into Salisbury (see also DE).
MA:
- Vineyard Haven micro is created from Dukes county (Martha's Vineyard). This leaves Nantucket as the only county not in a metro or micro area.
- Franklin county splits from Springfield to form Greenfield Town micro, then merges back.
MI:
- Many changes in Grand Rapids: Holland metro merges into it (Allegan micro is then renamed Holland), Ionia county splits to form Ionia micro only to merge back later, expands into Montcalm and retires from Newaygo and then Barry.
- Hillsdale micro is created from Hillsdale county.
- Kalamazoo retires from Van Buren county.
- Ludington micro is created from Mason county.
- Midland is upgraded.
- Owosso is merged into Lansing.
MN:
- Duluth expands into Lake county.
- Fairmont is deleted, then recreated.
- Grand Rapids micro is created from Itasca county.
- Minneapolis expands into LeSueur and Mille Lacs counties. It also expands into Sibley, only to retire later.
- Rochester expands into Fillmore county.
MS:
- Pascagoula merges into Gulfport. The combined area retires from George and Stone counties, then expands again to the latter.
- Hattiesburg expands into Covington county.
- Yazoo City is merged into Jackson. The latter then expands into Holmes county.
- Memphis expands into Benton county.
- Vicksburg expands into Claiborne county, then retires from it.
- West Point is deleted, then recreated.
MO:
- Columbia retires from Howard county, then expands again into it and also into Cooper.
- Fayetteville retires from McDonald county.
- St. Louis retires from Washington county.
MT:
- Billings expands into Golden Valley county, then retires and expands into Stillwater instead.
- Havre is deleted.
NE:
- Grand Island expands into Hamilton county, then retires from it.
- Hastings retires from Clay county.
- Scottsbluff expands into Sioux county.
NV:
- Winnemucca micro is created from Humboldt county.
NH:
- Lebanon is merged into Claremont.
NJ: No changes.
NM:
- Las Vegas expands into Harding county.
- Ruidoso is deleted, then recreated.
NY:
- Poughkeepsie is merged into New York, then splits back (they couldn't decide if this area is Upstate or not ).
- Rochester expands into Yates county.
- Watertown is upgraded.
NC:
- Lincolnton, Salisbury and Statesville are merged into Charlotte. The latter retires from Anson county, then expands back into it (see also SC).
- Dunn is merged into Fayetteville.
- Oxford micro is created from Granville county. It is then merged into Durham.
- Greenville retires from Greene county.
- Kill Devil Hills expands into Tyrrell county, then retires from it.
- Marion micro is created from McDowell county.
- Brunswick county switches from Wilmington to Myrtle Beach.
- New Bern is upgraded.
- Thomasville is merged into Winston Salem.
- Virginia Beach expands into Gates county (see also VA).
ND:
- Bismarck expands into Oliver and Sioux counties, then retires from the latter.
- Dickinson retires from Billings county, then expands back into it.
OH:
- Columbus expands into Hocking and Perry counties.
- Dayton retires from Preble county.
- Jackson micro is created from Jackson county.
- Washington county splits from Parkersburg to form Marietta micro (see also WV).
- Ottawa county splits from Toledo to form Port Clinton micro.
- Sandusky is downgraded.
OK:
- Enid is upgraded.
- Fort Smith retires from Le Flore county (see also AR).
- Lawton expands into Cotton county.
OR:
- Albany is upgraded.
- Grants Pass is upgraded.
- Newport micro is created from Lincoln county.
PA:
- Bloomsburg is upgraded.
- Chambersburg is upgraded.
- Gettysburg is upgraded.
RI: No changes.
SC:
- Chester and Lancaster are merged into Charlotte (see also NC).
- Dillon is deleted.
- Anderson is merged into Greenville.
- Greenwood expands into Abbeville county, then retires.
- Union is merged into Spartanburg, then splits back.
- Walterboro is deleted.
SD:
- Huron expands into Jerauld county.
- Pierre expands into Sully county, then retires from it.
- Rapid City expands into Custer county, then retires from it.
- Watertown retires from Hamlin county, then expands again into it.
TN:
- Brownsville is deleted, then recreated.
- Clarksville retires from Stewart county, then expands again into it.
- Humboldt is deleted.
- Jackson expands into Crockett county.
- Harriman and LaFollette are merged into Knoxville. The latter expands into Morgan county. In addition Grainger switches from Morristown, then switches back.
- Columbia is merged into Nashville.
TX:
- Alice expands into Duval county.
- Amarillo expands into Oldham county.
- Beaumont expands into Newton county, then retires from it.
- Big Spring expands into Glasscock county, then retires from it.
- Granbury is merged into Dallas. It then splits and is recreated from Hood county only, retiring from Somewell altogether. Dallas also expands into Delta county.
- El Paso expands into Hudspeth county.
- Houston retires from San Jacinto county.
- Lubbock expands into Lynn county.
- Marble Falls is deleted.
- Marshall is merged into Longview.
- Midland expands into Martin county.
- Pampa retires from Roberts county, then expands again into it.
- Pecos expands into Loving county .
- Aransas county splits from Corpus Christi to form Rockport micro.
- San Angelo expands into Sterling county.
- Waco expands into Falls county.
- Zapata is created from Zapata county.
UT:
- Summit county splits from Salt Lake City to form Summit Park micro. It is then merged into Heber.
- Brigham City is merged into Ogden.
VT:
- Berlin retires from Essex county.
VA:
- Blacksburg retires from Floyd county.
- Bluefield expands into Bland county.
- Blue Spring Gap micro is created from Dickenson and Wise counties and Norton city. It then retires from Dickenson.
- Charlottesville expands into Buckingham county, then retires from it.
- Danville is downgraded.
- Richmond retires from Cumberland county.
- Staunton is upgraded.
- Virginia Beach retires from Surry county, then expands into Southampton (see also NC).
WA:
- Othello micro is created from Adams county.
- Spokane expands into Pend Oreille and Stevens counties. It then retires from the former.
WV:
- Mount Oak is merged into Beckley. The combined area is upgraded.
- Lincoln and Putnam counties switch from Charleston to Huntington. Lincoln later switches back (see also KY for Huntington). Charleston also expands into Jackson county.
- Elkins is created from Randolph county.
- Hagerstown retires from Morgan county, then expands again into it.
- Mount Gay (originally Logan) micro is created from Logan county.
- Parkersburg retires from Pleasants county.
WI:
- Monroe is merged into Madison.
- Shawano micro is created from Menominee and Shawano counties.
- Merrill is merged into Wausau.
WY:
- Gilette expands into Crook and Weston counties.

[Roadgeekteen]

Why is Wiliamantic in the Worcester MSA? It's closer to Hartford and there is nothing between it and Worcester.

[webny99]

Why is Wiliamantic in the Worcester MSA? It's closer to Hartford and there is nothing between it and Worcester.

There's two ways to interpret that:

(1) It's very close to Worcester -- "There is nothing between Minneapolis and St. Paul"
(2) It's very rural between the two cities -- "There is nothing between San Antonio and El Paso"

[kurumi]

Why is Willimantic in the Worcester MSA? It's closer to Hartford and there is nothing between it and Worcester.

At least ConnDOT can put the I-384 extension on the shelf permanently since Hartford's out of the picture and work on the CT/MA 89 freeway to properly connect the two W's.

[Roadgeekteen]

Why is Wiliamantic in the Worcester MSA? It's closer to Hartford and there is nothing between it and Worcester.

There's two ways to interpret that:

(1) It's very close to Worcester -- "There is nothing between Minneapolis and St. Paul"
(2) It's very rural between the two cities -- "There is nothing between San Antonio and El Paso"

That area in Northeast Connecticut and Central Massachusetts is very desolate at least by New England standards. And yes I meant the second one.

[Rothman]

Why is Wiliamantic in the Worcester MSA? It's closer to Hartford and there is nothing between it and Worcester.

There's two ways to interpret that:

(1) It's very close to Worcester -- "There is nothing between Minneapolis and St. Paul"
(2) It's very rural between the two cities -- "There is nothing between San Antonio and El Paso"

That area in Northeast Connecticut and Central Massachusetts is very desolate at least by New England standards. And yes I meant the second one.

Because Census went by counties and Willimantic is just in the corner of Windham.

[SectorZ]

Why is Wiliamantic in the Worcester MSA? It's closer to Hartford and there is nothing between it and Worcester.

That part of Connecticut is just southern Worcester County anyways.

[formulanone]

Hope is deleted, then recreated.

Some events write their own jokes.

[Rothman]

Why is Wiliamantic in the Worcester MSA? It's closer to Hartford and there is nothing between it and Worcester.

That part of Connecticut is just southern Worcester County anyways.

It is still like the Census didn't want to leave a hole in southern New England that wasn't covered by an MSA.

Including Oxford is one thing, but Pomfret? 

I dunno.  I know it feels like an extension of Worcester County, but it also feels distinct from Worcester itself.

[NWI_Irish96]

Why is Wiliamantic in the Worcester MSA? It's closer to Hartford and there is nothing between it and Worcester.

That part of Connecticut is just southern Worcester County anyways.

It is still like the Census didn't want to leave a hole in southern New England that wasn't covered by an MSA.

Including Oxford is one thing, but Pomfret? 

I dunno.  I know it feels like an extension of Worcester County, but it also feels distinct from Worcester itself.

Census Bureau doesn't define MSAs. Office of Management and Budget does that.

[Rothman]

Why is Wiliamantic in the Worcester MSA? It's closer to Hartford and there is nothing between it and Worcester.

That part of Connecticut is just southern Worcester County anyways.

It is still like the Census didn't want to leave a hole in southern New England that wasn't covered by an MSA.

Including Oxford is one thing, but Pomfret? 

I dunno.  I know it feels like an extension of Worcester County, but it also feels distinct from Worcester itself.

Census Bureau doesn't define MSAs. Office of Management and Budget does that.

Census still accepts them as acceptable definitions for analysis.

[tolbs17]

Greenville's population struggled growing as did Pitt County. I'm guessing it's cause of the loss of businesses and jobs.

Greenville

1990 - 44,972
2000 - 60,476
2010 - 84,554
2020 - 87,521

Pitt County

1990 - 107,924
2000 - 133,798
2010 - 168,148
2020 - 170,243