Talk:List of United States cities by population

Ranking column isn't reordered when the other columns are reordered
The numbers in the leftmost column of the table should be pegged to the corresponding cities because they represent the cities' rankings by population, but that column gets out of synch with the cities if a user sorts the columns in some other way. For example, if I sort the table by state, I'd want 1 to remain with New York, 2 to remain with Los Angeles, and so on, but instead Anchorage becomes 1 and Huntsville becomes 2 because the leftmost column doesn't reorder. Is there a way to change this? RCTodd (talk) 16:31, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

Puerto Rico
Can you put San Juan on the list for list of cities by population Tramontana 4217 (talk) 13:53, 5 March 2024 (UTC)


 * There is a separate section for Puerto Rican municipios. Coulraphobic123 (talk) 16:53, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * @Coulraphobic123 Why do they have Puerto Rico all by itself Tramontana 4217 (talk) 23:43, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Can they have San Juan on the states list as a territory Tramontana 4217 (talk) 23:27, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I think it is because of Puerto Rico's qualification as a territory and not a state. It seems discriminatory but I think really it's just to separate the biggest cities in states from the biggest cities in territories.
 * Hopefully one day Puerto Rico and the other territories will get equal rights though, because it's terrible the lack of say the territories have when it comes to voting, yet they have to follow our law. That's a different subject but anyway yeah I think that's why San Juan is in a different section. Thomasbeem (talk) 07:02, 2 May 2024 (UTC)

map of cities needs updated
San Jose is still on it and Austin is not, i tried and failed to edit it, maybe someone else knows how! Km415 (talk) 22:43, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

Percentage decrease calculated incorrectly
I noticed because my hometown of Independence, MO, which is #238 I think, says -1.47% instead of -1.49%, which is what it should be. The problem is that whoever is putting in the numbers is subtracting the new population from the old population and then dividing by the new population, but the number should be divided by the old population. The same goes for percent increase, the equation just represents how much the new number has changed relative to the original number.

For example, if the current population is 123,456; and the old population was 124,999; then the calculation should be:

((123,456 - 124,999)/123,456) * 100

which equals approximately -1.25%. In the article, the population decrease is incorrectly calculated as

((123,456 - 124,999)/124,999) * 100

which equals approximately -1.23%, which is incorrect.

It should be divided by the old population because the percent decrease is new population relative to the old population.

It's not just the Independence, MO listing that has this problem. I tested out at least 5 others, and they had the same one. But I don't want to change it and then get it reverted by someone thinking I'm doing the calculation wrong, which I'm not. Thomasbeem (talk) 06:57, 2 May 2024 (UTC)


 * do it be boldAtavoidturk (talk) 13:00, 2 May 2024 (UTC)


 * The percent calculations are correct. The list uses a template that does the mathematical calculation automatically, it's not manually calculated. This list shows the 2022 estimated population of Independence as 121,202 and the 2020 official census count as 123,011:  ((121,202 - 123,011) ÷ 123,011) * 100 = 1.47%.  You were using the wrong denominator. The old population is the 2020 Census count and as such should be the denominator in the equation since all population growth percentages will be compared to the 2020 Census count. That's the base value and is not changing. You were erroneously dividing the difference in the numerator by the 2022 estimate. Coulraphobic123 (talk) 14:51, 2 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Oh I get it. My apologies. BittersweetParadox (talk) 00:12, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

2023 Census Estimates
The 2023 Census Estimates have been released today. I am in the process of updating this page. It should be fully updated by tomorrow at the latest. Coulraphobic123 (talk) 16:31, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Updates are completed. An image of Arlington, Texas will need to be added to the gallery at number 50. Coulraphobic123 (talk) 02:07, 17 May 2024 (UTC)