Fast-Growing Bay Area 4th in Population

The Big Apple is still the most populous urban center in America, but the fast-growing San Francisco Bay Area has edged out greater Philadelphia to move into fourth place behind Los Angeles and Chicago, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.

The 1985 tally of population by metropolitan area pegs the population of greater New York City at an estimated 17,931,100, up 2.2% from 1980. The count includes Long Island and adjacent areas of New Jersey and Connecticut.

The Los Angeles megalopolis, which embraces Anaheim, Riverside, San Bernardino, Long Beach, Oxnard and Ventura, held fast to second place with 12,738,200, up 10.8%, the bureau said.

Greater Chicago, including Lake County, Joliet, and Aurora, Ill., Gary, Ind., and Kenosha, Wis., remained third with an estimated 8,085,200 people, up 1.9%.

The population of the San Francisco Bay Area, which extends from Santa Rosa in the north to Santa Cruz in the south and Vallejo to the northeast, grew 8.2% to 5,809,300, knocking Philadelphia out of the fourth spot, the report said.

Greater Philadelphia, including Wilmington, Del., and Trenton, N.J., grew by 1.7% to 5,776,500, staying ahead of Detroit to hold the fifth spot.

Detroit, including Ann Arbor, Mich., was the only city in the top 10 to lose population. About 171,000 people left in the first five years of the decade, lowering the population 3.6% to 4,581,200.