Why do city/town limits signs have population listed on them?

[relaxok]

Why do city/town limits signs have population listed on them?

I have wondered this ever since I was a kid.  I don't see what purpose it serves, and they have to regularly update them as well which costs somebody's time/money/attention.

[SignGeek101]

Probably just for the curiosity of motorists. A better question is why elevation is (sometimes) displayed.  Both can seem pointless, but have more or less become the standard. That's my guess anyways.

[english si]

Elevation at least doesn't change.

[oscar]

I suspect civic ego has something to do with the population counts. But sometimes they provide useful information, where a city looks smallish from a freeway but there's a lot of people living just out of sight of motorists. For example, my wondering why Hamilton, Ontario has one of less than a dozen Canadian Football League teams, even with huge Toronto and its own CFL team in close proximity, was answered by the sign pointing out that Hamilton's population exceeds half a million, even though from the freeway it looks like just another one of Toronto's suburbs.

[empirestate]

Elevation at least doesn't change.

Unless, of course, you move to a different spot in the city...

[roadfro]

Elevation at least doesn't change.

Well it does, just extremely gradually...


Nevada lists elevation, but not population. We also list elevations of most mountain passes/summits (and give them names). When you travel long distances through a terrain like Nevada (where the predominant geography is basin and range no matter where you go), people are intrigued by the elevation changes between the passes and the towns in the valleys.

[empirestate]

Elevation can also be useful in things like knowing how to calibrate your microwave oven.

[Brandon]

Not all states have population listed on the city/village limit signs.  Michigan does not list the population.  Illinois does, as the only number on the sign (no "POP:") in front of it.  In fact, you can see greenout on Illinois municipal limit signage.  This is because the municipality in question had a special census.

[bzakharin]

I don't recall ever seeing a population sign in real life, only in movies/TV shows, which lead me to believe that it used to be done at some point and just made it into pop culture (I still recall the first episode of "Doug" where the family first moves to Bluffington. There's an electronic population sign that goes up by 4 as the family of 4 enters the city limits)

[Rothman]

I don't recall ever seeing a population sign in real life, only in movies/TV shows, which lead me to believe that it used to be done at some point and just made it into pop culture (I still recall the first episode of "Doug" where the family first moves to Bluffington. There's an electronic population sign that goes up by 4 as the family of 4 enters the city limits)

I've seen them in real life many times.

[Brandon]

I don't recall ever seeing a population sign in real life, only in movies/TV shows, which lead me to believe that it used to be done at some point and just made it into pop culture (I still recall the first episode of "Doug" where the family first moves to Bluffington. There's an electronic population sign that goes up by 4 as the family of 4 enters the city limits)

Oh, they're very real:

With greenout: https://goo.gl/maps/ngVXA
https://goo.gl/maps/FqGTP
https://goo.gl/maps/xBfBk

Those are just examples of IDOT installed ones.  The municipalities themselves also install signage.  It's usually far more substantial.

[Big John]

^^ IDOT is using actual populations now I see, they used to round them off to the nearest 100.

[Quillz]

Elevation at least doesn't change.

Assuming elevation is based on city average, it actually can. For example, after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the Santa Susanna Mountains, part of LA, rose up to 15 inches. Minute and unnoticeable, sure, but over a long period of time...

[SignGeek101]

I don't recall ever seeing a population sign in real life, only in movies/TV shows, which lead me to believe that it used to be done at some point and just made it into pop culture (I still recall the first episode of "Doug" where the family first moves to Bluffington. There's an electronic population sign that goes up by 4 as the family of 4 enters the city limits)

Here's one with the word "population" on it. A very exact population also.



Not my pic.

[Big John]

Wisconsin does that too:  (not my pic)

[CtrlAltDel]

I don't recall ever seeing a population sign in real life, only in movies/TV shows, which lead me to believe that it used to be done at some point and just made it into pop culture (I still recall the first episode of "Doug" where the family first moves to Bluffington. There's an electronic population sign that goes up by 4 as the family of 4 enters the city limits)

Oh, they're very real:

With greenout: https://goo.gl/maps/ngVXA
https://goo.gl/maps/FqGTP
https://goo.gl/maps/xBfBk

Those are just examples of IDOT installed ones.  The municipalities themselves also install signage.  It's usually far more substantial.

An example of the latter:


My understanding of the issue is that, in Illinois, these sorts of signs are required to have the population on them. Technically, they are just replacements for the regular green signs. Why that's the requirement, though, I'm not sure.

I could be mistaken though. This sign, for example, is missing the population count:

[Rothman]

I could have sworn there was a Prestonsburg, KY sign with population on Old US 23/460 (now KY 114) around Archer Park.  Seems it was taken down.

[1995hoo]

Elevation may have some relevance to your vehicle's performance, but if you're at a high enough elevation for that to matter, you should have noticed it already. (I found it very odd in Colorado seeing low-grade gas as 85 octane instead of 87 and premium as 91 instead of 93.)

[kkt]

Elevation could also give you a hint about your chances of running into snow.

[Brandon]

Elevation could also give you a hint about your chances of running into snow.

Depends on where on is.  Around the Midwest, it's more likely your proximity to the Big Lake and where you are in relation to it (typically southeast of it).

[roadman65]

Virginia used to do it on I-95 for both Ashland and Fredericksburg.  It was in very tiny fonts under the city names on the green panel guides on the overhead assemblies.

QEW in Ontario uses them approaching a big city with multiple interchanges with a blue sign with the name, its people county, followed by the amount of exits serving it.

[Jim]

Coming from the northeast, where both population and elevation on welcome signs seem to be rare, I've always found them interesting but far from essential.  Sometimes you learn just how tiny a town is:



With the '1' and '8' in different sizes, it appears this one was updated at some point.  My picture was taken almost 10 years ago (7/23/05), so I wonder if it's still at 18.

I know I have seen a few with single digit populations listed, but I don't seem to have a picture of any.  Anyone have a shot of one with a smaller population than 18?

[Big John]

(not mine)

[SignGeek101]

QEW in Ontario uses them approaching a big city with multiple interchanges with a blue sign with the name, its people county, followed by the amount of exits serving it.

BC shows the exits, but not population:



It's also one of the only types of signs left that BC uses FHWA. This one was replaced sometime in 2009 - 2011.

[Duke87]

The population of a town may give you a good hint as to the likelihood of finding certain services there.

Yes, neither population nor elevation is generally crucial information. But if you're already putting up signs marking town lines, the marginal cost of a few extra letters and numbers on the sign isn't much. And the information is nice to have, for curiosity if nothing else.

I still recall the first episode of "Doug" where the family first moves to Bluffington. There's an electronic population sign that goes up by 4 as the family of 4 enters the city limits)

Ha, yes, it rolls up from 19,997 to 20,001. Doug says "I guess I'm the 1".

It was because of this episode that I had assumed 20,000 people was a typical size for a city (Bluffington has a "downtown" after all). I was surprised to then learn that the city I lived in was home to five times as many people.