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Biggest Cities in the United States

Can you guess the 50 most populous cities in the United States according to 2022 U.S. Census estimates?
This is based on city proper population. For metro areas, check out this quiz.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: May 18, 2023
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First submittedMay 9, 2011
Times taken695,696
Average score54.0%
Rating4.94
5:00
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Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...
Population
City
8,335,897
New York City
3,822,238
Los Angeles
2,665,039
Chicago
2,302,878
Houston
1,644,409
Phoenix
1,567,258
Philadelphia
1,472,909
San Antonio
1,381,162
San Diego
1,299,544
Dallas
974,447
Austin
971,319
Jacksonville
971,233
San Jose
956,709
Fort Worth
907,971
Columbus
897,720
Charlotte
880,621
Indianapolis
808,437
San Francisco
Population
City
749,256
Seattle
713,252
Denver
694,800
Oklahoma City
683,622
Nashville
677,456
El Paso
671,803
Washington
656,274
Las Vegas
650,706
Boston
635,067
Portland
624,444
Louisville
621,056
Detroit
620,376
Memphis
569,931
Baltimore
563,305
Milwaukee
561,008
Albuquerque
546,574
Fresno
545,567
Tucson
Population
City
528,001
Sacramento
512,498
Mesa
509,297
Kansas City
499,127
Atlanta
486,248
Colorado Springs
485,153
Omaha
476,587
Raleigh
455,618
Virginia Beach
451,307
Long Beach
449,514
Miami
430,553
Oakland
425,096
Minneapolis
411,867
Tulsa
410,647
Bakersfield
398,173
Tampa
396,192
Wichita
+2
Level 85
May 24, 2019
Honolulu is a consolidated city-county, so why isn't the city's official population the county's official population (~ 1 million)? I'm sure I've been stung by this on some other JetPunk quiz.
+3
Level ∞
May 24, 2019
It's not a consolidated city-county. Honolulu (city) is an unincorporated part of Honolulu (county). Weird, I know.
+2
Level 28
Jul 22, 2019
I'm disappointed in myself I missed Arlington, Albuquerque, Raleigh, and Sacramento. :(
+8
Level 37
Aug 14, 2019
We're all disappointed in you.
+1
Level 60
Oct 18, 2023
sadness.
+4
Level 82
Jan 12, 2020
My sincere apologies to Denver. Somehow in my west to east listing, I completely missed the state of Colorado.
+2
Level 65
Feb 6, 2020
I typed "Arlington" for Arlington, Virginia, but it was Arlington, Texas.
+2
Level 65
Feb 6, 2020
I missed Colorado springs because I was in a hurry and typed "co springs" which wasn't accepted.
+2
Level 92
Jun 7, 2021
I always try the same thing with VA Beach.
+3
Level 80
Feb 14, 2020
Could we have a similar quiz based on the biggest metropolitan area?
+3
Level ∞
Feb 15, 2020
+2
Level 82
Feb 20, 2020
I always forget Omaha.
+1
Level 82
Oct 21, 2022
New update. This time missed Bakersfield, Louisville, and (::facepalm::) Detroit...

Years of consistently missing Omaha and Wichita have trained me to type those in first, though.

+2
Level 20
Mar 5, 2020
crap i missed san antonio, indianapolis, san diego, san jose,nashville, baltimore, milwake, new orleans, and Atlanta.
+2
Level 42
Nov 22, 2021
INTENSIFYING SAD ATLANTA-ER NOISES
+2
Level 60
Jun 10, 2020
How the hell did I miss San Francisco?
+2
Level 35
Jun 10, 2020
i cannot spell albeuquerque for the life of me
+5
Level 37
Aug 31, 2020
Sometimes I pronounce it Al boo qwer qwe to help me spell it. Al bu quer que. It is tough
+1
Level 64
Feb 6, 2024
you spelled it wrong here too!
+2
Level 65
Jun 18, 2020
38 yet i managed to somehow miss Seattle.......
+2
Level 29
Aug 1, 2020
50, not bad. i'm an american and looks like I got louisville at the last second.
+3
Level 29
Aug 1, 2020
Wait, San Diego is number 8??? and San Jose is number 10???
+3
Level 37
Aug 31, 2020
Got 40! Proudest guess: Long Beach (love being a West Coaster). Most embarrassing miss: Washington. Don't know how I did this...
+2
Level 36
Dec 13, 2020
50/50. Not bad for an 11 year old Australian.
+2
Level 54
Dec 17, 2020
41. Wasted so much time going state-by-state and listing a few of their big cities instead of just going for the top of the country.
+3
Level 64
Dec 22, 2020
Got Fresno...

Forgot Chicago.

+2
Level 27
Jan 31, 2021
Dang, forgot Vegas
+3
Level 26
Apr 1, 2021
Missed detroit, sacramento, tampa, memphis, milwaukee, and tulsa.. I KNEW ALL OF THEM AND EVEN WENT TO A FEW OF THESE HOW DID I FORGET-
+3
Level 16
May 4, 2021
I was born in Tulsa... but I still forgot Tulsa :/
+2
Level 65
Jun 7, 2021
So,It just change New Orleans to Wichita...
+4
Level 54
Jun 14, 2021
There's just not enough time
+2
Level 88
Jul 3, 2021
Agreed. I got 44 correct, and might have gotten the rest with another minute. Fun and challenging in any case.
+2
Level 62
Jun 26, 2021
47/50 Forgot Colorado and Indiana in my mental map through the states.
+3
Level 56
Jul 3, 2021
50/50! Yay! Almost missed Arlington but got Wichita straight off the bat
+2
Level 62
Jul 3, 2021
OK, that's impressive!
+2
Level 53
Jul 3, 2021
crazy how tulsa has a larger population than new orleans, cleveland, cininnati, boise, pittsburgh, newark etc etc
+2
Level 57
Jul 6, 2021
I bet several of those have larger metro areas, but have more of their population outside of the city limits.
+2
Level 25
Jul 5, 2021
Strange that Los Angeles has 3M population🤔
+2
Level 57
Jul 6, 2021
City proper is a lot smaller than the metro area.
+2
Level 57
Jul 6, 2021
Got 44, but somehow I managed to forget Tennessee existed :(
+2
Level 26
Aug 12, 2021
Wow I feel special, only 3.3% did 100% like me. I completed everything missing like 0:30 seconds, but yeah I did it and im Colombian, I feel proud of myself
+2
Level 88
Aug 25, 2021
The official U.S. Census results for 2020 came out a couple weeks ago. All the hype about New York City and other places taking a quick population dive as of Census Day proved false. NYC had lost a couple hundred thousand people according to the estimates shown in the table here currently, while the official count is 550,000 people more. Many of the losses and gains came out way off.
+2
Level ∞
Aug 25, 2021
Very interesting. It appears that they found a bunch of new housing units that they didn’t count before. But that only explains 250,000 of the difference. We will be sure to update next June when the 2021 estimates are released.
+2
Level 57
Sep 7, 2021
Bakersfield 403,455? US Census Bureau for reference
+2
Level 76
Nov 8, 2021
My hometown is top 25 for metro but doesn't make this list :(
+2
Level 19
Nov 15, 2021
I forgot Dallas, when i live in dallas
+2
Level 74
Dec 2, 2021
Just missed Wichita
+3
Level 74
Dec 2, 2021
I wish there was a way to see my old scores for every time I've taken this quiz before each time the quiz was reset.
+1
Level 37
Dec 15, 2021
new orleans 390,845
+3
Level 64
Jan 7, 2022
which would put it at 51st
+3
Level 67
Jan 3, 2022
The 50 United Cities of America
+2
Level 45
Feb 25, 2022
I was really surprised that St. Louis and New Orleans are not on the list. Perhaps in both cases the city proper is quite small if you don't count the surrounding towns.
+1
Level 22
Jul 17, 2022
They've lost population. People are moving out.
+1
Level 56
May 4, 2022
How far down is Spokane? I've always heard that it was the 50th largest city in the United States.
+2
Level 68
Jun 4, 2022
It sits around 100th largest in the US give or take
+1
Level 36
May 7, 2022
46, cant belive i forgot Boston
+1
Level 36
May 7, 2022
im not from the us btw
+1
Level 38
May 19, 2022
I misspelled Albuquerque smh
+1
Level 36
May 22, 2022
48 from israel
+1
Level 33
Jun 9, 2022
Bro I missed Atlanta. I live there -_-
+1
Level 57
Jun 15, 2022
47 for a mexican, i guess not bad
+2
Level 36
Jul 7, 2022
50 From Israel
+1
Level 27
Jul 22, 2022
I Missed Omaha And Arlington
+1
Level 66
Sep 20, 2022
Never heard of Long Beach, except as a brand of cigarettes. So I looked it up on Google maps, and it is a suburb of Los Angeles. Not a satellite suburb or a neighbouring town that has grown to merge, but bang in the middle of Los Angeles. To me a city is the entire urban sprawl. Clearly it means something else in the US. The term 'city proper' in the hints does not help. Do you mean local government areas?
+4
Level 63
Sep 21, 2022
"City proper" very likely means to refer to a city by its official municipal boundaries. This definition would separate Long Beach from Los Angeles they are technically two separate legal entities.
+1
Level 51
Nov 27, 2022
boston, nyc, philly, baltimore, and dc would all be one big city by your definition. Its one continuous urban sprawl along the east coast. but they are all independently governed as separate municipalities. hence long beach is separate from LA. if it was Metro population long beach would be included in LA. but that's not what the quiz is asking
+1
Level 61
May 10, 2023
uh no it doesnt, philadelphia is not close to boston or nyc.
+3
Level 63
Sep 21, 2022
It's very interesting to see how the use of city proper changes what appears on the list.

Cities have a much higher ranking than their national reputation would suggest:

1.) Jacksonville

2.) San Jose

3.) El Paso

4.) Mesa

5.) Fort Worth

Cities with a much lower ranking than their national reputation would suggest (this one relies more on metro area)

1.) Miami

2.) Atlanta

3.) Minneapolis

Cities that surprisingly don't make the list (likely would it used metro area definition)

1.) Saint Louis

2.) New Orleans

3.) Cleveland

4.) Cincinnati

5.) Pittsburgh

6.) Salt Lake

+1
Level 40
Oct 15, 2022
GOOD QUIZ!!!!!
+1
Level 40
Oct 15, 2022
I can't believe I forgot Boston and Washington D.C.
+1
Level 58
Nov 18, 2022
POV: You went into the comments to see some of the answers
+1
Level 46
Nov 19, 2022
Are these based on population? Bc vegas is OFF lol
+5
Level ∞
May 18, 2023
I just don't get these type of comments. This is Census data. It's incredibly easy to look up.
+1
Level 63
Oct 4, 2023
Las Vegas doesn't have a big population lol
+1
Level 60
Feb 11, 2023
40/50 on second attempt.
+1
Level 67
Feb 12, 2023
Time to update. The new estimates are in.
+3
Level ∞
May 18, 2023
No. The new estimates just arrived today.
+2
Level 57
May 18, 2023
question for quizmaster: Where do I go to see these estimates? Thanks in advance.
+2
Level ∞
May 18, 2023
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/data/tables.html
+1
Level 57
Mar 23, 2023
Great quiz though I would like to say that metropolitan areas is a far better way to show population. Still great though. For example Atlanta is 10x that size when considering it surrounding areas
+1
Level 57
May 18, 2023
it appears Tampa has entered the top 50!
+1
Level 57
May 19, 2023
if the cities continue at their current rates, Jacksonville, FL will be in the top 10 next year!
+2
Level 27
May 19, 2023
Great Quiz! Got them all!
+2
Level 82
May 19, 2023
Wondering if this kind of a speed challenge on purpose. If not, please add another minute. Pleeeease?
+1
Level 69
May 24, 2023
Thanks for the update! It's like Christmas!
+1
Level 60
May 25, 2023
Interesting how massive of distinction there is between cities and metro areas now a days. For instance Columbus is a top 15 city here, and the only city in Ohio on the list, but as of 2022 is actually below Cincinnati and barely above Cleveland in metro area rankings (oddly enough Cincy is below Cleveland in city proper rankings). Urban flight is certainly at play, but so are some peculiar politics. Being from Cleveland, I will use Ohio as an example again when I say Columbus has taken the liberty of incorporating a massive area of 200+ square miles, where Cincy and Cleveland are both under 80. Columbus is growing at a wild rate, but you'd be far fetched to find any Ohioan who thinks Columbus is bigger than these other cities to the degree that these stats insinuate.
+1
Level 60
May 29, 2023
40/50 and I'm all the way over here in the UK.
+1
Level 56
Jun 10, 2023
Could you accept Oklahoma for Oklahoma City and Kansas for Kansas City? I assumed that they would work as type ins but no :(
+1
Level ∞
Jun 10, 2023
Sorry but no. This comes off as broken English. KC and OKC are accepted type-ins however.
+2
Level 93
Aug 25, 2023
I've been on this site for six years and I'm just now finding out that OKC and KC are type-ins...
+1
Level 21
Jun 23, 2023
I thought Tampa would definitely be more than Minneapolis which is where im from
+1
Level 57
Jul 9, 2023
misleading since US cities have a large percent in suburbs and some cities on here have near 10x in their metro than in their proper such as Miami and Atlanta. Retitle to city proper. Other than that its good.
+1
Level 93
Aug 25, 2023
I mean it is in the description. It's not the fault of the quiz maker that you didn't read the caveats.
+1
Level 45
Aug 10, 2023
How is St. Louis not on this list?
+2
Level 63
Oct 4, 2023
Their population isn't high enough.
+1
Level 21
Oct 18, 2023
Got 27 -used to live in Portland
+1
Level 12
Nov 10, 2023
44 As a Finn
+1
Level 50
Nov 29, 2023
Please accept charlote as an alternate spelling for charlotte
+1
Level 61
Dec 19, 2023
just spell it right
+1
Level 25
Feb 13, 2024
none from iowa ):