7th Most Suburban City In America: Phoenix, AZ

Thanks to architect-urbanism-developer Brian Donnelly for send this summary of a new report

The top 10 most suburban cities in America

Jun 07, 2017 08:57 pm

7th Most Suburban: Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix, like Orlando is virtually all a postwar product. With its 100 percent suburban population, 19 percent of it is in the exurbs ranking Phoenix as seventh most suburban. Phoenix is the largest among the all-suburban cities, with more than 4.6 million residents and is likely to displace San Francisco to become the nation's 11th largest metropolitan area this year, and could take 10th position away from Boston by the 2020 Census.
Seven of the 10 most suburban cities are in three states. Three are in Florida and two each in North Carolina and Arizona. They are listed in the Table 1, and data is provided for all 53 in Table 2.

Cities (Metropolitan Areas) Ranked by Extent of Suburbanization
Major Metropolitan Areas: 2011-2015

Fast Growing and Automobile Oriented
As with all suburban areas, these suburban cities are automobile oriented. The journey to work transit market shares average 1.7 percent, one third of the national average for all areas. They are also among the fastest growing, with six ranking in the top 10 for 2010 to 2016 growth. A close look shows that the American urban form is changing, but not in ways commonly discussed among planners, urban land speculators and many academics.

According to NewGeography, ~85% of the population in the 53 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. lives in the suburbs or the exurbs. (Data from 2011-2015.)

And according to some definitions, a number of these cities could be classified as being 100% suburban.

NewGeography recently looked at America’s most suburbanized cities using the “City Sector Model” of classification.

Here’s generally how it works:

1. Urban core-CBD: Employment density > 19,999 people per square mile
2. Urban core-inner ring: Population density > 7,499 per square mile and > 19.9% transit/walk/bike modal split
3. Earlier suburb: Not urban core or exurb, and median year house built before 1980
4. Later suburb: Not urban core or exurb, and median year house built after 1979
5. Exurb: Outside of 2010 principal urban area or under 250 people per square mile 

Based on the above criteria, here are the top 10 most suburban cities in America:

 

 

 

All of these cities have virtually no urban core.
To break the 10 way tie, they were simply sorted based on the size of their exurban population.
To see all 53 metropolitan areas, click here.

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