Feeling a little crowded? It’s not your imagination. According to the United States Census Bureau Louisville packed in 0.8% more residents or, in real numbers, about 6,717 more dwellers in our bulging municipality in 2013.
Even with the influx, the Derby City slipped in the official city rankings from 27th to 28th. The conclusion that we draw from that data is that other cities have obviously cheated and inflated their numbers in an effort to appear to be as livable as the place we love. They must have.
As it stands, 609,893 of the best and brightest humans the planet have to offer occupy the big little city at the Falls of the Ohio. Now, if we were to add in the populations of the smaller cities that are within Jefferson County, the number goes up even further. After all, if Louisville’s and Jefferson County’s merger is to count for something, it seems right that those residents, who get to take advantage of the major amenities of living amongst us, should be added in.
Putting in the 82 cities within the county borders inflates the population by another 146,939. Thanks to Broeck Point, Hickory Hill, Rolling Hills and others, we boast an aggregated crowd of 756,832 or roughly the number of people who cheer for Cardinals, Wildcats and the occasional Hoosier. Sometimes even in combination.
If we’re getting technical, and please let’s get technical, that would make Louisville larger than Detroit which moves us into the top 20 among American metropolises (metropoli?). I don’t think anyone would disagree that the NBA’s Pistons would play better in the KFC! Yum Center. And we could bring Peyton Siva home, too. They can keep the NFL’s Lions. Louisville likes good teams.
What the Census Bureau calls the Metro Survey Area (MSA) puts our population and around 1.24 million by adding in the counties around us that depend on our fair city.
So, yeah, we’re doing pretty well.
Photo by Tim Girton
