Is New York bigger than Los Angeles?

Written by David Girones

This type of question where we compare two cities is quite common, as an example Is New York bigger than Los Angeles? Sometimes it is difficult to remember the population of each city or how the population has evolved since the last time we looked at the data. 

New York and Los Angeles population

Population of New York

New York, The Big Apple, according to the 2020 census provided by the United States Census Bureau has a population of 8.8 million people.

Population of Los Angeles

In the case of Los Angeles, also known as LA, the number of people living in the city according to the 2020 census is 3.8 million.

So if your question is:

How big is New York compared to Los Angeles?

Considering the population of each city, New York is bigger than Los Angeles, according to 2020 census data.

New York with 8,804,190 people and Los Angeles with 3,893,986, so New York has 4.91 million more people than Los Angeles.

Population trend of New York and Los Angeles

According to the historical record, since 2000 the population of New York has grown by 8.48% and the population of Los Angeles has grown by 5.41%.

Taking into consideration that the growth in population of New York is bigger than Los Angeles, the difference in population will be growing in the long run.

Is New York’s total land area bigger than Los Angeles?

Usually in a comparative question between two cities we want to know in which city lives more people. However, there is another unit of measurement that also refers to the size of the city and this is the total area.

In the case of the area comparison between New York and Los Angeles, the total area of New York is smaller than Los Angeles.

New York has a total area of 300.46 sq mi (778.19 km²) and Los Angeles, also known as LA, has 469.49 sq mi (1,215.97 km²).

Is New York bigger than Los Angeles

Which city has a higher population density? New York or Los Angeles

There is a third metric that is often used to compare cities, which is based on the two data points we presented earlier: population and area.

Population density is obtained by dividing the number of individuals living within a specific location by the total area of the location. In our comparisons as a unit of area we use square miles and km².

If the question we are trying to solve is whether the population density is greater in New York or Los Angeles, we must inform you that the population density is larger in New York.

New York Population Density

The density of New York, The Big Apple, is 29,302.4/sq mi (11,313.68/km²). 

Population Density of Los Angeles

The population density of Los Angeles is 8,294.14/sq mi (3,202.4/km²). 

Population density for both New York and Los Angeles, has been calculated using only land area, ignoring any water area belonging to the city.

Conclusion on which city is bigger New York or Los Angeles

As we have been able to observe with the data provided in the comparison between both cities, New York is a larger city than Los Angeles in terms of population.

On the other hand, in terms of total area New York is smaller than Los Angeles and if what we take into account is the population density, then we must indicate that the density of New York is greater than Los Angeles.

New York is the most populated city in the United States, and of course also in the state of New York. However, it is not the one with the largest total area, as some towns in Alaska have 10 times the size of New York, for example Sitka has more than 2,870 sq mi (7,000 km2).

New York and Los Angeles are the two most populated cities in the United States and also amongst the most visited. In terms of population, New York is twice the size of LA, but not in terms of extension, where Los Angeles is much larger than New York.

Other cities compared with Los Angeles or New York

Sources Used:

All information regarding number of people and annual population growth is extracted from United States Census Bureau databases.

The total area data of each city has been extracted from Wikipedia.

Photo by Quintin Gellar