Oddities that defy conventional wisdom - POPULATION edition

[bing101]

https://history.howstuffworks.com/world-history/most-densely-populated-city.htm


https://housegrail.com/most-densely-populated-cities-in-the-world/

https://populationeducation.org/crowded-metropolises-the-top-10-most-densely-populated-cities-in-the-world/


https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-most-densely-populated-cities.html

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-most-dense-cities.html

https://247wallst.com/special-report/2019/07/08/the-50-most-densely-populated-cities-in-the-world/


Here's one to look at one would think Chinese cities would be on this list for most dense cities in the world. Apparently Manila in this figure is listed as the world's densest populated city not just in the Philippines but the world in some figures but others say Mumbai India given when their countries census was released. 

[RG470]

More people live in tiny Singapore than, Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Ireland and Lebanon, among many others.

[Road Hog]

More people live in tiny Singapore than, Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Ireland and Lebanon, among many others.

You said Norway twice.

[SEWIGuy]

Fun fact: exactly twice as many people live in Norway and Norway combined than live in just Norway.

[kphoger]

You said Norway twice.

The second one in the list the town in Maine.

[Rothman]

More people live in tiny Singapore than, Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Ireland and Lebanon, among many others.

You said Norway twice.

Pizza, pizza.

[jeffandnicole]

More people live in tiny Singapore than, Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Alanland, Ireland and Lebanon, among many others.

You said Norway twice.

Now the list is correct.

Ain't Alanland's goat population also greater than Singapore's on every other Tuesday in alternating months if/when certain metric targets are reached depending on the phase of the moon and what day of the week it is?

Fixed.

[Road Hog]

The correct answer I was looking for should have been,"I like Norway."

[freebrickproductions]

Ain't Alanland's population also greater than Singapore's on every other Tuesday in alternating months if/when certain metric targets are reached depending on the phase of the moon and what day of the week it is?

Alanland doesn't use metric targets.  In Alanland, targets are measured by length according to the diameter at the widest point.  Length is measured in light-rice cookings (lRc), which is defined as the distance light travels in the time that it takes to cook rice (defined by the Grand Alan to be 14.57 minutes).  As with the unit for mass, scientific notation and SI prefixes are forbidden. Care should be taken with using this unit, as it is not inversely proportional to the length of the object.

Weirdly, the targets used are still called "metric targets" despite explicitly being defined in lRc. It's believed this name is a hold-over from Alanland's unabortive attempt at metrication that didn't happen until 15 years from now.

[english si]

The correct answer I was looking for should have been,"I like Norway."

Forget Snorway.

It's not been mentioned, but the City of London is the second smallest city in the UK (by city proper population - beating Wells), and the second smallest second tier local authority (being the also-sui-generis Isles of Scilly some way southwest of Land's End) at about 30% of the size of the 3rd smallest, which is also an outlier.

It's 19 times smaller (12,156 vs 213,119) than the only other city in the Greater London region (the only English region that still exists - because it got a Mayor and an Assembly rather than was little more than a line on the map that the others were*): Westminster

It's also a top tier local authority at the same time and, again, is about 30% of the size of the next smallest (the same one as second-tier districts, only here Rutland is even more of an outlier). Currently the government, trying to finish what the last several government were seeking to do, want just one tier of local government. The recommended population is half a million - 12.5 times little Rutland, and 40 times the smaller City of London. Oh, and these mega authorities will still have to club together and form a combined authority to get some actual power to do anything other than collect rubbish, block requests to build thing, and take money from central Government and spend it exactly how central Government wants.

*Though the City keeps its own police force, and petty criminals have learnt the hard way where the boundary is as the City Police are much more strict than the Met Police - nab a phone or do some shoplifting within the Square Mile and you will be arrested, unlike in areas covered by the Met.

[Rothman]

Alanland nonsense needs to stop infecting threads that did at least have a decent idea at the start.

[Scott5114]

Alanland nonsense needs to stop infecting threads that did at least have a decent idea at the start.

You know what, fair enough.

[Takumi]

The correct answer I was looking for should have been,"I like Norway."

I thought about it, but knowing the source material, thought better of mentioning it in mixed company.

[bing101]

More than half of Canada's population lives south of Seattle (using a line drawn at Seattle's latitude).

Ontario's major cities like Toronto, Windsor has to be south of Seattle.

[Road Hog]

Maybe population-related, maybe not, but storm chasers showed Memphis' skyline and I was not impressed. Little Rock has at least as many skyscrapers. LR punches above its weight.

[Max Rockatansky]

At least Memphis has a skyline.  Bakersfield arguably doesn't even really have a downtown anymore.  The tallest building in what was the traditional downtown area is the ten story BofA building.  Much of downtown was damaged beyond repair during 1952 earthquakes. 

[Scott5114]

Maybe population-related, maybe not, but storm chasers showed Memphis' skyline and I was not impressed. Little Rock has at least as many skyscrapers. LR punches above its weight.

Yeah, but does Little Rock have a pyramid?

[jgb191]

If you were to ask me what the second-largest MSA in California is, I would have naturally guessed the SF-Oakland MSA.  But to my utter surprise, SF-Oakland MSA was just overtaken by Riverside-San Bernadino-Palm Springs area.

Columbus has overtaken Cleveland for the largest city in Ohio's history; Cleveland peaked sometime in the late 1940s at over 900K and Columbus is at 913K.  Speaking of Cleveland, I read somewhere it was larger back in 1900 than it is now.

[JayhawkCO]

On a somewhat similar note, Denver County is not the most populous county in Colorado, which I would guess many would assume.

[Max Rockatansky]

I feel as though nowadays that Riverside-San Bernardino is just a glorified series of Los Angeles suburbs. 

[bing101]

More people live in tiny Singapore than, Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Ireland and Lebanon, among many others.

Dang all of these countries are between 4 million to 7 million people if they were cities or counties they would rank between New York and Los Angeles city propers if they were cities.

[Scott5114]

On a somewhat similar note, Denver County is not the most populous county in Colorado, which I would guess many would assume.

I wouldn't even venture a guess at what the most populous county in Colorado is, because Colorado county lines are profoundly stupid and don't seem to reflect any sort of geographical reality, other than perhaps where mountain ridges are sometimes.

[Max Rockatansky]

Guadalajara is still the largest city in Jalisco.  However, the Municipality of Zapopan is now larger by population than Guadalajara.  Guadalajara the city and Municipality are consolidated, Zapopan isn't.

[JayhawkCO]

On a somewhat similar note, Denver County is not the most populous county in Colorado, which I would guess many would assume.

I wouldn't even venture a guess at what the most populous county in Colorado is, because Colorado county lines are profoundly stupid and don't seem to reflect any sort of geographical reality, other than perhaps where mountain ridges are sometimes.

Hmm. The combined City and Counties of Denver and Brookfield are the only ones that don't really follow something geographic. Adams and Arapahoe are a little weird just because they extend so far east. Can you give me an example?

[Scott5114]

On a somewhat similar note, Denver County is not the most populous county in Colorado, which I would guess many would assume.

I wouldn't even venture a guess at what the most populous county in Colorado is, because Colorado county lines are profoundly stupid and don't seem to reflect any sort of geographical reality, other than perhaps where mountain ridges are sometimes.

Hmm. The combined City and Counties of Denver and Brookfield are the only ones that don't really follow something geographic. Adams and Arapahoe are a little weird just because they extend so far east. Can you give me an example?

Adams and Arapahoe are perfect examples, actually—if you look at historic maps, they were created by the legislature just drawing a bunch of parallels on the map from the Front Range clear to Kansas. (The counties east of them were split off later.) And now the way the county lines fall they each have a chunk of Denver suburbs stuck to the side of a long, narrow strip of farmland.

Weld County seems like it contains too many disparate jurisdictions. Do Erie, Greeley, and Raymer really have enough in common to justify them falling under the same government? Likewise, Larimer County has a bunch of towns spilling over into Weld but also runs up into the mountains to contain Estes Park somehow. I have to imagine that the county commission meeting agendas cover such a wide range of topics as to become whiplash-inducing.

Teller County's existence was probably justified at one point due to mining interests but now it seems to function as an extension of El Paso County.

I mean, I guess it works for Colorado, and my longest stint in your state was a layover at DEN last October, so I'm far from an expert here. But from what I know about county government in other states I would be surprised if Colorado didn't run into a lot of bureaucratic and political issues that aren't experienced in other places simply because the county lines fall in awkward places that don't reflect how people actually use the land.