List of U.S. metropolitan areas by central city population ratio

City proper populations can be deceiving. For example, the largest city in Florida by city proper population is Jacksonville, with a population of 911,000. It's nearly twice as big as the second biggest city, Miami, with a population of 468,000. But when you look at the population of the entire metropolitan areas, Miami metro is at 6,166,000, nearly four times larger than Jacksonville metro, at 1,560,000. The difference in city proper populations can be attributed to the more-or-less arbitrary decisions of city planners that led to Jacksonville having an absolutely massive area that gobbles up all its suburbs, while Miami's city limits are a rather small part of the Miami metro area. Nine different Miami suburbs have populations above 100,000.

I've collected data on all 384 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) of the United States, with the city proper population of the central city, and the ratio between the two. You can find the entire dataset here. Populations are 2019 census estimates, except for central cities that are Census Designated Places, in which case the population is from the 2018 estimate.

Here are the 12 MSAs with the lowest ratio of city proper to MSA:

MSA	state	MSA pop	city pop	ratio
Poughkeepsie	NY	679,158	30,515	4.49%
Naples	FL	384,902	22,088	5.74%
East Stroudsburg	PA	170,271	10,433	6.13%
Myrtle Beach	SC	496,901	34,695	6.98%
Riverside	CA	4,650,631	331,360	7.13%
Niles	MI	153,401	11,149	7.27%
Gettysburg	PA	103,009	7,724	7.50%
Miami	FL	6,166,488	467,963	7.59%
Greenville	SC	920,477	70,635	7.67%
Salisbury	MD	415,726	32,935	7.92%
Atlanta	GA	6,020,364	506,811	8.42%
North Port	FL	836,995	70,724	8.45%

Here are the 12 MSAs with the highest ratio of city proper to MSA.

MSA	state	MSA pop	city pop	ratio
Carson City	NV	55,916	55,916	100.00%
Laredo	TX	276,652	262,491	94.88%
Lincoln	NE	336,374	289,102	85.95%
San Angelo	TX	122,027	101,004	82.77%
Enid	OK	61,056	49,688	81.38%
El Paso	TX	844,124	681,728	80.76%
Lubbock	TX	322,257	258,862	80.33%
Lawrence	KS	122,259	98,193	80.32%
Midland	TX	182,603	146,038	79.98%
Corpus Christi	TX	429,024	326,586	76.12%
Amarillo	TX	265,053	199,371	75.22%
Odessa	TX	166,223	123,334	74.20%

Among MSAs with a population of at least 1,000,000, here are the 12 with the lowest city proper ratio:

MSA	state	MSA pop	city pop	ratio
Riverside	CA	4,650,631	331,360	7.13%
Miami	FL	6,166,488	467,963	7.59%
Atlanta	GA	6,020,364	506,811	8.42%
Hartford	CT	1,204,877	122,105	10.13%
St. Louis	MO	2,803,228	300,576	10.72%
Orlando	FL	2,608,147	287,442	11.02%
Providence	RI	1,624,578	179,883	11.07%
Washington	DC	6,280,487	705,749	11.24%
Minneapolis	MN	3,640,043	429,606	11.80%
Tampa	FL	3,194,831	399,700	12.51%
Pittsburgh	PA	2,317,600	300,286	12.96%
Cincinnati	OH	2,221,208	303,940	13.68%

Among MSAs with a population of at least 1,000,000, here are the 12 with the highest city proper ratio:

MSA	state	MSA pop	city pop	ratio
San Antonio	TX	2,550,960	1,547,253	60.65%
Jacksonville	FL	1,559,514	911,507	58.45%
Tucson	AZ	1,047,279	548,073	52.33%
San Jose	CA	1,990,660	1,021,795	51.33%
Louisville	KY	1,265,108	617,638	48.82%
Memphis	TN	1,346,045	651,073	48.37%
Oklahoma City	OK	1,408,950	655,057	46.49%
Austin	TX	2,227,083	978,908	43.95%
New York	NY	19,216,182	8,336,817	43.38%
San Diego	CA	3,338,330	1,423,851	42.65%
Columbus	OH	2,122,271	898,553	42.34%
Indianapolis	IN	2,074,537	876,384	42.24%

Again, you can find the entire dataset here. Thanks for reading.