It’s official: Phoenix is now the 5th largest city in the US–knocking Philadelphia from the Number 5 spot.
From the article linked above: “A special mid-decade census in 2005 estimates Phoenix has 1,475,834 residents, up 154,789 residents from 2000. Census numbers from July 2004 put Philly’s population at 1,470,151, a number that has been declining by an average of 860 residents a month.
Actually, what”s more important in ranking the Phoenix area is probably examining the metro region rather than simply the population of the core city. As this aritcle points out, the Phoenix metropolitan region isn’t all that big when compared to other regions of the US:
“The Philly region, with 5.8 million people, is fourth-largest in the nation. Metro Phoenix, at 3.7 million, ranks 14th.”
