San Diego Ousts Detroit to Become 6th-Largest City

San Diego, San Jose and Jacksonville, Fla., moved up in the latest population rankings of the nation’s 25 largest cities, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

The bureau said New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia all retained their top five positions in the population rankings, holding the same order as in 1986, the last time the bureau estimated city populations.

But San Diego replaced Detroit as the nation’s sixth-largest city, and San Jose passed San Francisco and Indianapolis to move into 12th place. In the other change in the top 25, Jacksonville replaced Washington as the 16th-largest city.

Among the 25 largest cities, 12 are estimated to have lost population from 1986 to 1988, including Houston, Dallas and Denver. Dallas’ population loss dropped the city under 1 million, a level Dallas had reached for the first time in 1986.

The bureau’s population estimates cover the city limits and do not include suburbs. Populations and rankings for metropolitan areas, including suburbs, can differ substantially from those for cities.

Here are the 1988 Census population estimates for the country’s 25 largest cities, with each figure followed by the 1986 estimate. The figures are in thousands.

City 1988 1986 New York 7,353 7,263 Los Angeles 3,353 3,259 Chicago 2,978 3,010 Houston 1,698 1,729 Philadelphia 1,647 1,643 SAN DIEGO 1,070 1,015 Detroit 1,036 1,086 Dallas 987 1,004 San Antonio 941 914 Phoenix 924 894 Baltimore 751 753 San Jose 738 712 San Francisco 732 749 Indianapolis 727 720 Memphis 645 653 Jacksonville 635 610 Washington 617 626 Milwaukee 599 605 Boston 578 574 Columbus 570 566 New Orleans 532 554 Cleveland 521 536 El Paso 511 492 Seattle 502 486 Denver 492 505