What are the 50 largest U.S. cities by population according to the 2020 Census?
Executive summary
The 50 largest U.S. cities by population, as enumerated by the 2020 Decennial Census, are led by New York City and include the familiar Sun Belt surge of Phoenix, Houston and others; the ranking below follows the Census’ count of residents on April 1, 2020 and collates widely used public lists that reproduce that official ordering [1][2]. New York City remained the nation’s largest city with roughly 8.3–8.8 million residents according to 2020 counts and contemporary summaries [3][4].
1. The top 50 cities by 2020 Census rank
The following list reproduces the standard ordering of the largest incorporated places by population according to 2020 Census-based compilations: 1) New York, NY; 2) Los Angeles, CA; 3) Chicago, IL; 4) Houston, TX; 5) Phoenix, AZ; 6) Philadelphia, PA; 7) San Antonio, TX; 8) San Diego, CA; 9) Dallas, TX; 10) San Jose, CA; 11) Austin, TX; 12) Jacksonville, FL; 13) Fort Worth, TX; 14) Columbus, OH; 15) Charlotte, NC; 16) San Francisco, CA; 17) Indianapolis, IN; 18) Seattle, WA; 19) Denver, CO; 20) Washington, DC; 21) Boston, MA; 22) El Paso, TX; 23) Nashville, TN; 24) Detroit, MI; 25) Oklahoma City, OK; 26) Portland, OR; 27) Las Vegas, NV; 28) Memphis, TN; 29) Louisville, KY; 30) Baltimore, MD; 31) Milwaukee, WI; 32) Albuquerque, NM; 33) Tucson, AZ; 34) Fresno, CA; 35) Sacramento, CA; 36) Mesa, AZ; 37) Kansas City, MO; 38) Atlanta, GA; 39) Long Beach, CA; 40) Omaha, NE; 41) Raleigh, NC; 42) Colorado Springs, CO; 43) Virginia Beach, VA; 44) Miami, FL; 45) Oakland, CA; 46) Minneapolis, MN; 47) Tulsa, OK; 48) Bakersfield, CA; 49) Wichita, KS; and 50) Arlington, TX — a ranking reproduced in public reference compilations derived from Census place counts [1][2].
2. Why that ordering matters — and what it measures
This list ranks incorporated places by resident population as counted in the decennial census; that count is a snapshot of where people were living on April 1, 2020 and does not measure metropolitan area populations or daytime/workforce population, distinctions that frequently change policy conversations about congestion, transit and federal funding [2][1].
3. The Sun Belt pattern and the 2020 story
The 2020 Census confirmed a long-running shift: many of the numeric gainers and rank climbers were in the South and West, which helped Phoenix, Austin, Fort Worth and others rise in the order while older industrial cities often stagnated or fell relatively behind — a narrative the Census highlighted in its regional growth summaries [5][2].
4. Sources, methodology and common caveats
Public lists such as Wikipedia’s compilation and reproductions by reference sites and outlets rely on the Census Bureau’s municipal population totals and on its later annual estimates for non-decennial years; while annual estimates show trends, the decennial Census is the official baseline for legal and many administrative purposes, and different outlets may present slightly different numeric totals while keeping the same rank order [1][2][4].
5. Alternate viewpoints and limits of available reporting
Some commentators emphasize metropolitan or combined statistical area rankings rather than municipal counts to reflect economic regions, and those alternative rankings change the story (for example, larger metros vs. city proper), a distinction explicit in Census materials and in analyses reproduced by encyclopedias and data sites; reporting here follows the user’s request for city proper rankings and relies on Census-derived place counts [2][3].