Most populated cities in the US 2026

Cities with the largest resident population in the United States in 2026

New York City remains the most populated city in the United States in 2026, with roughly 8.58 million residents according to the latest Census Bureau estimates. Los Angeles is a distant second at about 3.87 million, followed by Chicago at 2.73 million. After that the ranking runs through a run of Texas and Sun Belt cities, with Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas and Fort Worth completing the top ten.

What stands out is the scale of the New York lead. It is about 2.22 times the size of Los Angeles and, on its own, bigger than Los Angeles and Chicago combined. No other US city comes close to that kind of primacy. Below the top three, though, the rankings are increasingly shaped by the South and West, where cities such as Fort Worth, Jacksonville and Austin keep climbing.

The chart below ranks the fifteen largest cities by resident population. These are city-proper figures, counting only the people inside each municipal boundary, which is why they look smaller than the metro-area numbers often quoted in the news. A later section shows just how large that difference can be.

New York towers over the rest: at 8.58 million it is more than double Los Angeles and larger than Chicago and Los Angeles combined.

How much bigger is New York than the rest?

The distance between New York and everyone else is the defining feature of the US urban hierarchy. the New York total of 8.58 million residents dwarfs the 3.87 million in Los Angeles and 2.73 million in Chicago. The drop from first to second is larger than the entire population of Chicago, and from there the numbers fall away quickly, with Houston at 2.40 million and Phoenix at 1.67 million rounding out the top five.

This pattern, where one city is far larger than the next, is unusual among large countries and reflects the long history of New York as the commercial and cultural gateway of the nation. Even as its population dipped after 2020 and has only partly recovered, its lead is in no danger. The chart compares the top six cities directly so the size of that gap is clear.

A steep drop after the top three: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago sit far above Houston, Phoenix and Philadelphia.

Which big cities are growing, and which are shrinking?

Behind the rankings is a clear regional story. Since the 2020 census, the largest coastal and Rust Belt cities have lost residents while Sun Belt cities have surged. New York is down more than 200,000 people from its 2020 count, and Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia have each slipped as well. At the same time San Antonio has added about 114,000 residents, Fort Worth around 109,000 and Houston roughly 93,000.

The first chart below shows the change since 2020 for the ten largest cities, with bars above the line for gains and below it for losses. The split between the older coastal giants and the rising southern cities could hardly be sharper. The second chart ranks the biggest numeric gainers among the top cities, all of them in the South and West.

Coastal giants down, Sun Belt up: New York fell by more than 200,000 while San Antonio, Fort Worth and Houston posted the biggest gains.

Texas leads the growth: San Antonio, Fort Worth and Houston each added around 90,000 to 114,000 residents since 2020.

City limits versus the whole metro area

City-proper population and metro-area population are two very different measures, and confusing them is the most common mistake in this kind of ranking. A city figure counts only the people inside the legal municipal boundary. A metro area covers the entire commuting region around it, which is often several times larger.

Dallas is the clearest example. As a city it holds about 1.33 million people, ninth nationally, but its Dallas-Fort Worth metro area is home to roughly 8.48 million, making it one of the largest urban regions in the country. New York, with 8.58 million in the city and 20.1 million in the metro, tells the same story on a grander scale. The chart below sets the city and metro figures side by side for the top cities.

The metro is far bigger: Dallas has 1.33 million people as a city but 8.48 million across its metro area.

Where the biggest US cities are located

Mapping the largest cities onto Census regions shows just how far the balance has tilted toward the Sun Belt. Of the 100 largest cities, 42 sit in the South and 34 in the West. Together the two account for more than three quarters of the biggest cities, leaving the Midwest with 17 and the Northeast with just 7.

The state picture is just as lopsided. Texas and California each place 15 cities in the national top 100, a combined 30 percent of the ranking. Within the top 25, Texas alone accounts for six of the entries, from Houston and San Antonio down to El Paso. The two charts below show the regional and state breakdowns.

The Sun Belt dominates: the South and West hold 76 of the 100 largest cities between them.

Texas out front: six of the top 25 cities are in Texas and four are in California, with fifteen other states holding one each.

Which US cities have more than a million people?

Twelve US cities topped one million residents in 2025. The newest member is Austin, Texas, which crossed the mark for the first time to reach about 1.00 million. It joins Jacksonville and Fort Worth, which both passed a million a year earlier. At the same time San Jose, long a fixture of the million club, slipped just below the line to about 990,000, a quiet marker of the shift away from the coastal tech hubs.

The full million-plus list runs New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, Fort Worth, Jacksonville and Austin. The chart below zooms in on the cities clustered right around the one-million threshold, where the most movement is happening.

Austin in, San Jose out: Austin reached about 1.00 million while San Jose eased to roughly 990,000.

Why Texas has so many big cities

No state shapes the modern city ranking like Texas. Six of the 25 largest US cities are in Texas: Houston at 2.40 million, San Antonio at 1.55 million, Dallas at 1.33 million, Fort Worth at 1.03 million, Austin at 1.00 million and El Paso at 0.68 million. That gives Texas more top-25 cities than any other state, ahead of the four in California.

Several forces feed the trend: a lower cost of living, business-friendly policy, job growth and steady migration from higher-cost states. The result is that the Texas Triangle of Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin has become one of the fastest-growing urban clusters in the country. The chart shows the six Texas cities in the top 25.

Six of the biggest 25: Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and El Paso all rank among the largest US cities.

How concentrated is the US urban population?

For all the talk of big cities, the US population is spread across a very long list of them. The 100 largest cities together hold about 65.9 million people. New York alone makes up 13 percent of that total, and the twenty largest cities account for just over half. The remaining eighty cities, from Oklahoma City down to Norfolk, split the rest.

That means the country does not depend on a handful of megacities the way some nations do. Outside New York and Los Angeles, urban America is a wide field of mid-sized cities. The donut below shows how the population of the 100 largest cities divides between New York, the next nineteen and the remaining eighty.

A long, wide field: New York is 13 percent of the top 100, but eighty smaller cities together hold nearly half.

The most populated US cities in numbers

A handful of figures capture the 2026 city landscape. New York leads at 8.58 million, twelve cities top a million, Texas holds six of the top 25, and the South claims 42 of the 100 largest cities. The direction of travel is unmistakably toward the Sun Belt.

These numbers matter because city size drives everything from congressional representation and federal funding to housing markets and transit planning. A ranking that shifts toward Texas, Florida and Arizona reshapes where the country invests for the decade ahead.

Most populated US cities: the big picture

The 2026 ranking keeps a familiar face at the top, with New York, Los Angeles and Chicago holding the first three spots as they have for decades. Beneath them, though, the map is being redrawn. Sun Belt cities are climbing, coastal and Rust Belt cities are flat or falling, and the one-million club keeps admitting new Texas and Florida members while a coastal name like San Jose drops out.

If current migration and growth patterns hold, the next few years will push more southern cities up the list and could reshuffle the middle of the top 25 entirely. For the wider context, see how the national total breaks down in our US population by sex data and how the country compares within the world population.

Frequently Asked Questions: Most Populated US Cities