Business First of Buffalo, a sister publication to the Phoenix Business Journal, has a computer program that can estimate the population of any state, area, county, city or town on any given day. It analyzes population trends from the past 10 years, and uses that data to issue updated figures. Projected populations are generated by a computer formula that Business First developed in 2000. The formula uses a decade of U.S. Census Bureau data to extrapolate growth trends.
They fine-tune the program every few months, feeding in the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The latest revisions were released today.
Nine U.S. metropolitan areas have populations above 5 million with New York topping the list. The Phoenix metro area, defined as Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, came in at number 11 out of 940 metropolitan areas with an estimated population of 4,500,239 as of today.
The report indicates that the Phoenix area population is on the rise. Based on their formula, population is expected to hit its next minor milestone of 4,501,000 Friday. And by Sept. 1, the number is expected to stand at 4,510,000.
Here are the Top 11 Metropolitan Areas by population as of August 4th, 2010:
1) New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA 19,154,092
2) Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 12,931,077
3) Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI 9,641,146
4) Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 6,618,405
5) Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 6,022,719
6) Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD 6,000,904
7) Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 5,620,829
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL 5,594,422
9) Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 5,558,015
10) Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH 4,621,095
11) Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 4,500,239
