National Affairs: The Cities

There were two new faces in the list of the 20 biggest U.S. cities—Seattle and Houston. Houston, in fact, had jumped from 21st to 14th. The first 20 (1940 rank in parentheses):

1. New York—7,841,023 (1st)

2. Chicago—3,631,835 (2nd)

3. Philadelphia—2,057,210 (3rd)

4. Los Angeles—1,954,036 (5th)

5. Detroit—1,837,613 (4th)

6. Baltimore—939,865 (7th)

7. Cleveland—909,546 (6th)

8. St. Louis—852,253 (8th)

9. Washington—792,234 (11th)

10. Boston—788,552 (9th)

11. San Francisco—760,439(12th)

12. Pittsburgh—673,756 (10th)

13. Milwaukee —632.938 (13th)

14. Houston —593,600 (21st)

15. Buffalo —576,506 (14th)

16. New Orleans—568,407 (15th)

17. Minneapolis —517,410 (16th)

18. Cincinnati —499,749 (17th)

19. Seattle—462,981 (22nd)

20. Kansas City—453,290 (19th).

...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!