Top 101 Cities Lists
November 6, 2007 11:56 AM   Subscribe

Top 101 Cities Lists (in the US)
posted by graventy (46 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wow. Some crazy extremes out there. Like, 95+% of a zipcode (with 15,000+ people) voting for a particular candidate. Also, South Florida is a gay Mecca. (Hmmm....gay....Mecca. Homofascists?)
posted by DU at 12:03 PM on November 6, 2007


Holy crap, this site is awesome. Go to the main page and look for your own town. It has everything from racial makeup to location of water testing stations.
posted by DU at 12:09 PM on November 6, 2007


[this is good]
posted by sciurus at 12:11 PM on November 6, 2007


Craptacular design, but full of information. Not a worthless post at all. For example, check out their list of "Top 100 High-Educated but Low-Earning Cities" here. Stanford, CA is #1, with 94.6% of residents holding a bachelor's degree, and a $41K median income
posted by googly at 12:14 PM on November 6, 2007


One of the numbers about China that blew me away when I first heard it is that there's something like 125 cities with populations of a million or greater. We have, what, three or four perhaps that size in the UK. All those lives going on in places I've not even heard of. Boggles my mind.
posted by Abiezer at 12:18 PM on November 6, 2007


10004 is Wall Street -- NOT Bronx County.
posted by mattbucher at 12:20 PM on November 6, 2007


According to this, 10004 is actually the southernmost tip of Manhattan (including Ellis and Governor's Islands).
posted by googly at 12:21 PM on November 6, 2007


Here is a better map showing 10004 is Wall Street/Battery Park.
posted by mattbucher at 12:21 PM on November 6, 2007


Thanks for the link; this is fascinating stuff.

I realize it was likely census data at the core, but I still think there should have been filters for military bases/towns. "Not living in same house as 5 years ago" and "Most people who walk to work" would have been interesting to observe outside the military skew, for example.

If one is willing to poke around, a lot of this data bears out Demographics You Assumed But Had No Proof Of. Ex: Texas with the bulk of the cities on the "lowest # of English-speaking households".... Retiree-heavy AZ and FL with the "fewest # people born in same state as city," that sort of thing.

But it shows a lot of Demographics You Assumed Totally Incorrectly too: Most Households with Firearms, for example. Or, where the most divorced people live. I had an enlightening couple of minutes of self-revelation, looking through the list and making assumptions before I clicked, to see how my assumptions held up against facts.

Shout out, Austin: #1 for "Most alcohol drinking places" \m/
(but hey, also appearing in the list of most doctorates, so.)

posted by pineapple at 12:25 PM on November 6, 2007


I love that there are 3,855 living in the 78701 zip code of Austin, Texas - and 80 places to drink.
posted by phaedon at 12:26 PM on November 6, 2007


Only 9 percent of the population in my town has a graduate degree? Fuck this, I'm asking for a raise.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 12:31 PM on November 6, 2007 [2 favorites]


hm. Afroblanco's link merely makes me sad. Look at all those counties in Colorado that were heavily weighted towards Kerry, including the most populous one (Denver county).

and yet, the state still comes up as a 'red state' on the majority vote. This, my friends, is why I hate politics.
posted by lonefrontranger at 12:34 PM on November 6, 2007


So, according to this, Davis County, UT, residents:

Love their teeth (12th in dentist visits), don't smoke (#1), don't drink (#1), own guns (#13), and impregnate every fertile woman within range (#12).

Yeah, sounds about right.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:37 PM on November 6, 2007


davehat's definitely got a point tho, the OP could have qualified a bit on the title... I mean we do have a lot of non-US members on this site. Just seems a tad rude where you're implying these are the "top 101 Cities"... ANYWHERE.
posted by lonefrontranger at 12:38 PM on November 6, 2007


Great resource thanks.

Another goodie with maps: Social Explorer
posted by marvin at 12:43 PM on November 6, 2007


Sorry, didn't mean to imply a non-US slant. I just thought it was interesting.

See the highest percentage voting for Bush one? Just two lines down the center of the country. The Kerry one is similar, with one down the center and one on the east coast. Is this just a sign that the Midwest is better worse at gerrymandering?
posted by graventy at 12:46 PM on November 6, 2007




This could be a great website but it's hampered but a poor design. Lots of great information but where are the citations? Hard to tell if you're looking at comparable numbers from list to list. And the local profiles run on and on and on. Somebody get an editor!
posted by Dead Man at 1:04 PM on November 6, 2007


In order to meet women, I suggest you cross-reference this list with this one.
posted by King Bee at 1:10 PM on November 6, 2007


This is begging for some Hans Rosling-style scatter-plot-y goodness. Is the raw data available anywhere?
posted by you at 1:17 PM on November 6, 2007


damn. i'm sorta embarrassed to be born in Macomb County.
posted by mrgrimm at 1:17 PM on November 6, 2007


Links to 101 lists of "100 top cities," and yet we're still going to make this thread about NYC.
posted by SassHat at 1:26 PM on November 6, 2007


King Bee: and perhaps this one?
posted by alexei at 1:28 PM on November 6, 2007


Alexei - If one is so inclined, then yes. =)
posted by King Bee at 1:29 PM on November 6, 2007


What surprised me was all the sunburned folks from the northeast
posted by SBMike at 1:29 PM on November 6, 2007


Sorry, I was annoyed because I'm from Canada. Should count to 10 before posting.
posted by autodidact at 1:34 PM on November 6, 2007


Very interesting link. FWIW, the Top 101 cities with the largest percentage of likely homosexual households (also on this list) confirms a couple of local queer-community nicknames for Decatur, GA ("Dyke-ate her", "Dick-hater"). Numbers 6, 9, 14, 21, and 24 on the list are an essentially contiguous area, and 26 and 32 aren't far away.

I'm also seeing several lists where college towns are skewing the results. It's hard to get realistic accounting of things like per-capita income when more than half a city's residents are full-time students, some of whom must work full-time while others are fully supported by parents and still others are living off undeclared grant and loan income.
posted by notashroom at 1:37 PM on November 6, 2007


Wow. The high school I attended is less that half the size it was when I graduated.
posted by Doohickie at 1:42 PM on November 6, 2007


You forgot to add "US" to the link title.
posted by fire&wings at 1:43 PM on November 6, 2007


WORTHLESS POST

No.
posted by ORthey at 2:00 PM on November 6, 2007


There are top cities OUTSIDE the US?

gettoudofhere
posted by mattoxic at 2:01 PM on November 6, 2007 [1 favorite]


Miami Shores? You got to be shitting me. Unless everything's changed in 20 years, and , well, hell I guess it could have -- Miami Shores was all old religion last I remembered.
posted by cavalier at 2:09 PM on November 6, 2007


Why do Pittsburgh and Boston, for instance, have spikes at 20-something years of age?
posted by StickyCarpet at 2:12 PM on November 6, 2007


I'm also seeing several lists where college towns are skewing the results.

Is that it?
posted by StickyCarpet at 2:13 PM on November 6, 2007


Pineapple: "But it shows a lot of Demographics You Assumed Totally Incorrectly too: Most Households with Firearms, for example."

Look at the Most Households and Least Households with Firearms. Significant overlap. I say there are fewer than 200 counties reporting on this demographic.
posted by A-Train at 2:40 PM on November 6, 2007


Great post, thanks!
posted by supercrayon at 2:41 PM on November 6, 2007


So, do people want to move to California, or what?

Top 101 larger cities with the highest increase in house/condo value from 2000 to 2005

I mean, for fuck's sake, I know the weather is good and all, but ...
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:10 PM on November 6, 2007




No wonder I can never get a cab when it rains here in NY. I need to move to Bethel, AK.
posted by lsemel at 3:44 PM on November 6, 2007


Why is it they've compiled data on the high & low weight of women... But there's nothing on the weight of men?

Hmmm...
posted by thewalrusispaul at 4:59 PM on November 6, 2007


i love the list of People in Group Quarters in Portland, OR. it ends with this:

- 7 people in wards in general hospitals for patients who have no usual home elsewhere
- 4 people in unknown juvenile institutions
posted by snofoam at 8:05 PM on November 6, 2007


Is that it?

For Boston it almost certainly is.
posted by danb at 8:44 PM on November 6, 2007


THIS IS AWESOME. Gonna take me a while to get through it all. Damn, but I love me some demographics!
posted by davidmsc at 9:30 PM on November 6, 2007


This is why I was pissed that Canada was omitted... check out this list of the most-skyscrapered cities in the world. Toronto is number 2 on the list! Canada has 3 cities in the top 10, and 6 cities in the top 25. Even my fairly insiginificant hometown of Mississauga seems to have a world-class skyline.
posted by autodidact at 7:35 AM on November 7, 2007


You can't spit without hitting two or three bars in my zip (21224) in Baltimore, and we're only #25 for alcohol-serving places in the US? Folks, we must do better.

Of course, we're still #1 in the city of Baltimore, the state of Maryland, and the Northeast (excluding a couple of NYC zip codes), so I suppose there's still something to be proud of . . .
posted by CommonSense at 9:13 AM on November 7, 2007


Pineapple- I guess you are in Austin, too. Hahah at everyone who assumes Texans are all crazy for firearms. Only 2 Texas counties (the ones that house Dallas and Houston) made the firearms list that you pointed out.

Phaedon- 78701 is the zip that has the entertainment and bar district and very little housing in comparison. That's why the numbers are like that.
posted by fructose at 11:38 AM on November 8, 2007


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