# Largest U.S. City You Never Heard Of **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 27, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682 "2010-02-27T20:55:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/41 "2010-02-28T02:55:19Z")
#58, Aurora, Colorado. Ain’t never heard of the place. I was surprised to see that Salt Lake City isn’t much bigger, population-wise, than piddly little Jackson, MS. I also find it amazing that my state (MS) is about 48,430 sq mi with a population of a hair under 3 million people, while England comes in at about 50,346 sq mi with a population of about _51 million_. :eek: Damn, do y’all have any elbow room in England? ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/42 "2010-02-28T03:01:39Z")
> [@kenner116](#): > > #76, Chandler, Arizona. Me too. ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/43 "2010-02-28T03:10:18Z")
Woo hoo! We made 185. Where we score is with the metro area(should include counties of Hidalgo, Starr, Cameron, Willacy), although the metro region south of the border is decreasing in population as we speak (and I’m not talking about immigration-wise). Never heard of Visalia, though. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/44 "2010-02-28T03:25:02Z")
Today, the biggest I’ve never heard of are Gilbert, AZ (#94) and Fremont, CA (#104). I can go that deep only because shortly after the 2000 census results came out I went through a list of the 100 biggest cities. At that time there were several in the top 100 I didn’t know. Memory is fragile, but I think that in 2000 I had never heard of Santa Ana, Henderson, Glendale, Chandler, Garland, or North Las Vegas. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/45 "2010-02-28T03:53:32Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > I got gotten at #50, Arlington, TX. Which is kind of embarrassing, really, as I’m pretty good with U.S. geography. Well, they do have their own MLB team, the Texas Rangers. Anyway I got down to #74, Glendale, Arizona. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/46 "2010-02-28T03:57:20Z")
#122: Fontana, California. I never heard of it, but it’s more populous than Salt Lake City. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/47 "2010-02-28T04:31:48Z")
Another vote for Chandler, Arizona. I was “saved” from crapping out at 71 by knowing Henderson, NV from the show _CSI_ 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RetroVertigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RetroVertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RetroVertigo)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/48 "2010-02-28T04:38:03Z")
#89 Chula Vista California. ---
**Author:** ![mkecane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@mkecane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkecane)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/49 "2010-02-28T04:47:22Z")
Another vote for Moreno Valley, CA. There are a handful of California cities after it that I hadn’t heard of before (Garden Grove, Corona, Lancaster, and Elk Grove). The first non-Californian city I hadn’t heard of is Sterling Heights, MI. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/50 "2010-02-28T04:56:59Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Well, they do have their own MLB team, the Texas Rangers. > Anyway I got down to #74, Glendale, Arizona. The Arizona Cardinals, an NFL team, play there. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/51 "2010-02-28T05:01:14Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Same here. > > Edit: And after looking at the pictures of the top cities, I had no freakin’ idea you could easily see mountains and _snow_ in LA! I guess I’ve always seen pictures of LA taken either towards the ocean, or looking along the coastline. What do you think that Hollywood sign is stuck to? ---
**Author:** ![Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Picard_Kills_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/52 "2010-02-28T05:03:39Z")
#10: San Jose, California Maybe It’s because I lived on the east coast all my life, but I don’t think I have ever heard of San Jose before. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/53 "2010-02-28T05:20:31Z")
> [@mkecane](#): > > Another vote for Moreno Valley, CA. There are a handful of California cities after it that I hadn’t heard of before (Garden Grove, Corona, Lancaster, and Elk Grove). The first non-Californian city I hadn’t heard of is Sterling Heights, MI. Huh, I _live_ in Sterling Heights, MI (metropolitan Detroit), but I wouldn’t expect anyone to have heard of it unless they were from lower-east Michigan. We visit family out in Mesa, AZ. And I’ve never heard of Moreno Valley, CA either. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/54 "2010-02-28T05:58:11Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > I got gotten at #50, Arlington, TX. Which is kind of embarrassing, really, as I’m pretty good with U.S. geography. > > The list was very interesting though. Omaha is huge! It’s bigger than St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnatti, Cleveland, Miami, Minneapolis and on and on. I had no idea. > > I was also really surprised at how small certain cities were. Savannah is unexpectedly tiny, as is Charleston. I would have thought that Springfield, IL was a lot bigger. And Kansas City, KS, too. I knew that Kansas City, MO is a lot bigger than KC, KS, but I didn’t know it was THAT much bigger. Wild. Ah, yes, but if you think that you’re misunderstanding what that list really means. As the wiki article says in its intro, they’re just counting the population of the legal entity called the City of Wherever. That is a totally different thing than the population of the urban+suburban area most of us are thinking of when we hear the name of some city halfway across the country from us. See [Metropolitan statistical area - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_United_States_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas) for the difference. Taking your first example … Omaha is an area where the city, the legal entity, encompasses almost all the urban & suburban population. In other words, the City of Omaha extends from downtown out to the edge of the cornfields. It has 840,000 people. In the St. Louis area, by contrast, the legal entity called the City of St. Louis is a tiny core and the total urban / suburban area out to the edge of the cornfields consists of over 200 cities & towns all tucked side by side. Collectively, they hold 2.8 million people. In other words, the Greater St. Louis area has about 3.5 times the population of the Greater Omaha area. Meanwhile, the City of Omaha has about 1.3 times the population of the City of St. Louis. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/55 "2010-02-28T06:14:16Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > #58, Aurora, Colorado Same here. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/56 "2010-02-28T06:15:23Z")
> [@Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](#): > > #10: San Jose, California > > Maybe It’s because I lived on the east coast all my life, but I don’t think I have ever heard of San Jose before. ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/mZuOgEptHcU/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/mZuOgEptHcU?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque I’m another one for Chandler, AZ. I’ve always made an attempt to avoid Phoenix and its environs when traveling through the southwest ( I usually enter the region from CA well north of there, taking the route through Flagstaff), so not so surprising I guess. ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/57 "2010-02-28T06:38:18Z")
Mesa for me too, but I’ve only heard of Jacksonville since I moved in with a guy from there. There are also a whole bunch that I’ve heard the name of, but wouldn’t have thought were particularly large, nor could tell you anything about. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/58 "2010-02-28T07:30:50Z")
Depends on definiton of “have heard of.” All I know of “Mesa, AZ” is that I recall seeing the name in print. (I may have seen “Virginia Beach, VA” just as often but the redundancy made it less likely to stick in memory. I couldn’t go with Santa Ana, CA … I attended Kindergarten there.) It’s good to see New Orleans is the largest city in Louisiana again. Another thread might be “Which city position surprised you?” That San Jose, CA kicked Detroit, MI off the Top Ten list seems “significant.” > [@](#): > > #10: San Jose, California This (#10) probably wins the contest. Perhaps the common substitution of the name “Silicon Valley” is the culprit. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/59 "2010-02-28T09:12:44Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > Today, the biggest I’ve never heard of are Gilbert, AZ (#94) and Fremont, CA (#104). > > I can go that deep only because shortly after the 2000 census results came out I went through a list of the 100 biggest cities. At that time there were several in the top 100 I didn’t know. Memory is fragile, but I think that in 2000 I had never heard of Santa Ana, Henderson, Glendale, Chandler, Garland, or North Las Vegas. Interestingly, I live right next to Fremont, CA, so for me that one was obviously well-known. ---
**Author:** ![Waxwinged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@Waxwinged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waxwinged)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682/60 "2010-02-28T13:09:13Z")
#13. Jacksonville, Florida. Curse you, Midwestern upbringing with no sunlight and lots of corn! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-u-s-city-you-never-heard-of/530682.md?page=4)