Top 15 Medium-Sized Cities in the U.S.

howdy it's Kyle counting down the top 15 medium-sized cities in the US and there's no official definition for what makes a medium-sized city so I'm listening to use some statistical natural brakes and there are a bunch of metros in the four hundred thousand population range and there are a bunch in the six hundred thousand population range but they're very few in the 500 thousand range so I'm gonna be using that as my natural break actually five hundred ninety thousand and up and for the top limit I'm using 1.1 million so there are a lot of materials between 1 million and 1.1 million but then none between 1.1 and 1.3 so essentially I'm doing medium-sized cities between 600,000 people at 1.1 million that number 15 is Des Moines Iowa it's the state capital and has seen some moderate growth this past decade it's household and per capita income are both pretty average and it has a below average housing cost there's a pretty average poverty rate but the crime rate is surprisingly above average but it is a little more cosmopolitan and fun that you might think and had a pretty decent nightlife but being Iowa there are no mountains or beaches and the outdoor activities are very limited but overall Des Moines is an above-average City and worth its place on this list at number 14 is Grand Rapids Michigan it's had some decent growth in the past decade after losing population in the early 2000s that's pretty average household and per capita income but it has pretty low housing costs and a pretty average poverty rate but one of the major reasons for growth in recent years a lot of younger people moving there is the Van Andel Institute for biomedical research this is a major player for cancer Parkinson's and cell biology research it's a pretty fun city with a pretty lively nightlife and surprisingly enough it's beer City USA with over 50 breweries in the Grand Rapids area but with little terrain around there there really isn't much outdoor adventure but there are some decent Road biking and mountain biking trails throughout the area so it has a pretty different feel than the rest of the urban parts of Michigan which are much more geared to the automotive industry at number 13 is Fresno California which is a half an hour north of where I grew up it's had some high growth this century as a pretty young population as well so a lot of folks are coming from the Sandwich Bay Area or the LA area to buy a home in Fresno because it is so much cheaper than the ones along the coast it's the number one place in the country for agriculture and major corporate AG but there really isn't a whole lot else going on besides major AG but it's not just the crops there are also AG formulators and other agricultural machinery that are made there but because it is a major center for Ag you have a lot of fresh fruits and nuts there you have six farmers markets there which is pretty high and yet over 20 micro brews in the city as well so it's not the most exciting city in the country in terms of nightlife but it isn't that bad either and it is a nicer place and that people along the coast of California would want you to believe that number 12 is Columbia South Carolina which is where I lived for a few years while going to graduate school it has pretty moderate population growth but it has slowed down a little bit since it was growing a lot more in the early 2000s the household and for capita incomes are both below average but the housing cost is below ours as well the economy there is pretty stable because the three largest parts of the economy are all with the government so if the state capital for south carolina it's also home to the largest university in the state and it's also home to Fort Jackson which is the largest basic training center for the army it's home to one of the best zoos in the country and there's some pretty nice State Forest and state parks just outside of town it's a pretty fun town with some decent nightlife and there's a really good live music scene and a great barbecue scene and I do miss that barbecue from the Midlands of South Carolina at number 11 is Omaha Nebraska and it's been growing at a pretty decent clip and is one of the fastest growing cities in the Midwest it's pretty average for household income per capita income and poverty rate but it does have a below average housing cost the economy is pretty well diversified and it's home to several insurance companies including Mutual of Omaha Woodman of the world and a national indemnity company the largest company in the city is Berkshire Hathaway which is Warren Buffett's huge holding company but it does have a fantastic zoo and is just overall an above-average place at number 10 is Huntsville Alabama and there's been a lot of growth there this century the household a per capita income are some of the highest in the southeast and this is to go along with pretty low housing costs but does have a pretty high poverty rate and a pretty high crime rate as well there are more engineers per capita in Huntsville than any other city in the u.s. largely due to the aerospace and high-tech military industries it's home to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center which says rocket propulsion research it's also home to the US Army's aviation and missile command but being a major center for engineers astrophysicists and the military it's not the most exciting city in the country nightlife there is pretty limited and there really isn't much of a music scene there either however northern Alabama is much more suited to outdoor activities you might expect and there are several other Alabama state parks nearby so because of all the NASA and engineering and high-tech stuff going on there it has a pretty different feel than the rest of Alabama and it's a pretty nice place at number 9 is Chattanooga Tennessee where I live it's had pretty steady moderate growth this century although it has the lowest income levels of any city on this list the housing cost and poverty rates are pretty average for the southeast and it does have above average crime in terms of economy it's fairly diversified but it's also mostly blue-collar and low wage jobs the biggest players in town include Volkswagen which has a major assembly plant there when unum insurance however it's probably most known for the wealth of outdoor activities it can offer just in town itself there are many places where you can go hiking and mountain biking and it's pretty well known for being one of the best spots for mountain biking and rock climbing in the country and it's the number one place for caving in the entire world so a lot of folks are moving here I'm moving here because of the outdoor activities and they're willing to accept lower wages to do it so whether or not you like Chattanooga often comes down to how much you like outdoors activities if you're really into outdoor type stuff and it's a pretty great place to live and if you're not into that stuff well it's gonna be a pretty below average at number 8 is Charleston South Carolina there's been huge growth this past decade and I don't think any city in the US has changed more if it's a short period of time than Charleston the household and per capita incomes are well above average for the south and have doubled since 2000 the average house value is three hundred and fifty thousand dollars which is absurd the southeast and it was only a hundred and thirty seven thousand twenty years ago so it's two and a half times as expensive to get a house there than it was just at the beginning of the century and even though the average house value is about three hundred and fifty thousand good luck finding one for under half a million the job market there is ok it's a pretty important spot for commercial shipping and there's a major Boeing assembly plant there there's a decent high tech sector there and it's also the corporate headquarters for the Piggly Wiggly grocery store chain it's a very fun city great nightlife great shopping kind of stuff and a pretty decent music scene but the reason why it's so expensive that it's a great place to live and it's right there along the coast and winters are very mild at number seven is Greenville South Carolina so the Palmetto State is well represented on this list 20 years ago Greenville would not be on this list but it's improved a lot this century there's been a lot of growth recently and the economy is fairly well diversified it's household their per capita incomes are well above average for the southeast and there's a below average housing cost in terms of manufacturing it's home to a major michelin tire plant and it's also home to confluence water sports which makes a lot of canoes and kayaks and being in the Upstate of South Carolina there's a lot of outdoor activities near Bias you're pretty close to the Appalachians in the Blue Ridge Parkway and there's several really nice state parks just outside of town so it's kind of replaced Columbia as the hipster capital of South Carolina and has changed a lot so it used to be pretty redneck about 20 years ago but with the diversify the economy and attracting a lot more younger and high-tech kind of people the city has changed quite a bit at number six is at Paso Tejas it's been growing quite a bit and it has a pretty young population it has pretty average household a per capita income but it has very low housing cost and overall very low cost of living and surprisingly enough it's the safest city in the u.s. even though it's such along the Mexican border with one of the most dangerous cities in the entire world that's fantastic climate with over 300 days of sunshine each year and this nicknamed the Sun City is home to Western refining which is a major energy company is home to the large Fort Bliss farming installation and it's known as the boot capital of the world with 12 boot manufacturing is located in the city but it's a pretty fun city with a Union Plaza area having some pretty nice nightlife and L Center having some pretty cool open-air markets and there's a lot of great outdoor activities right near the city with Franklin Mountain State Park basically right there in town and it's also pretty well known for its rock climbing and mountain biking scene so overall El Paso is a pretty nice place and had a pretty good mix of southwestern Texan and Mexican culture at number five is Honolulu Hawaii and it's been growing pretty slowly has about the same population had in 2000 it has a well above average household and per capita income but it has an extremely high cost of living it's the most expensive city in the country and which to live the average house value is $800,000 although if you've lived there for a long time and you owned your home for a while that it isn't going to be super expensive but if you're trying to move there now well good luck in terms of the job market and economy it isn't entirely dependent on tourism there are many other things going on there its Harbor is extremely important it's a major Center for trans-pacific transport it's the corporate headquarters and hub to Hawaiian Airlines and because of its unique geography in geology it's a major Center for oceanography and geophysical research and it's also a major center for the military with all five branches of the armed forces having a major installation there Honolulu is also the happiest healthiest and least stressed-out city in the country as the second lowest obesity and diabetes rate and has a longest life expectancy in the US so it has very high livability rank and one of the highest qualities of life in the world but just like Charleston it comes with a price literally at number 4 is Colorado Springs and just like the rest of Colorado it's experienced high growth in the past decade or so the household and per-capita income are pretty well above average and the housing costs are just a little above average the crime rate and poverty rate of both pretty average in terms of the economy it's pretty dependent on the military and military contractors it's home to Peterson Air Force Base as well as the Air Force Academy and it's also home to the Fort Carson Army it's a decently fun said he doesn't have the greatest nightlife in the world but it does have over 30 breweries and being Colorado it's a course on to have a ton of outdoor activities with Garden of the Gods being right there in town but Pike National Forest Bear Creek Canyon State Park Mueller State Park and Cheyenne Mountain State Park all very nearby so overall Colorado Springs rings pretty high in terms of a place to live at number 3 is Tucson Arizona which just has a lot of population growth this century and like a lot of other cities on this list the population is pretty young and they're moving there because housing costs are pretty low the household and per capita incomes are both pretty average but they are below average for the West and it also has an above average crime rate and above average poverty rate as well but the reason why Tucson ranks so high on this list and another reason why so many young people are moving there is the big high-tech job sector going on there the area is nicknamed the optics valley and it's a leading part of the country for optics and optoelectronics so there are several companies that are dealing with LED and oh le D research optical fiber photo resistors and charge-coupled imaging devices but it's also a pretty fun town with a huge University there there's gonna be a lot of entertainment options there's a part of town called the main gate square it has a pretty cool spot full of nightlife and bars and restaurants and there's a pretty decent music scene there as well but it also has a decent amount of outdoor activities nearby so you have Saguaro National Park this outside of the city but there's also several state parks nearby as well it's Colossal Cave Mountain Park the only big negative on Tucson is that it gets really hot during the summertime as you might expect being Arizona but the winters that were very mild at number two is Boise Idaho which is the fastest growing medium-sized city in the country it has above average household a per capita income average housing costs an average poverty rate and a below average crime rate in terms of its economy it's pretty decently diversified its home to micron tech which is a major high-tech company for a computer memory data storage dynamic RAM and flat drives is to corporate headquarters to the Albertsons grocery store chain and being Idaho it's also home to jr. Simplot company was with the largest producer of potatoes in the country but also being Idaho there's a lot of great outdoor activities nearby with a lot of great state parks and wilderness areas very near the city and it's a lot more fun than you might think the downtown is pretty cool it's a pretty good nightlife scene pretty good music scene and a decent number of bars and breweries so there's a reason why Boise is so popular it's just a pretty cool place it's got some nice scenery a pretty decent job market and it's not too expensive to live there and the number one medium-sized city in the entire country is Albuquerque New Mexico it's had pretty moderate population growth and it has a pretty young population as well the household and per capita incomes are both above average but the housing costs are below average poverty rate is averaged but the crime rate is above average but the job market including many high tech jobs is one of the major reasons why this ranks so high it's home to Sandia National Laboratory which is a major nuclear research facility PNM resources which is a major energy company Applied Research Associates which is a major engineering company tricor reference lab which is a major medical research laboratory and CVI laser optics so it isn't just high tech jobs as a diversity of high tech jobs but it's also a very fun town it's a great nightlife scene the Nob Hill areas get a lot of funky shops and restaurants and nightlife it's the home to the University of New Mexico there's a lot of young folks there a lot of college oriented nightlife a lot of breweries and new Mexican food is some of my favorite in the entire country with 310 days of sunshine every year it's a very nice place for outdoor activities you got mountains right nearby yeah the Sandia Mountains wilderness Cibola National Forest just a lot of cool outdoor adventure type stuff right near the city and that doesn't even get into some of the cultural and historical things about Albuquerque as I like so much but just some of the economic and job opportunities there why Albuquerque ranks so high on this list and while I believe it's a number one medium-sized city in the country so there you have it the top fifteen medium-sized cities in the US and after I put this list together I was like wow this just reeks of bias because I've lived in three of these two other ones are in South Carolina where I live and one is my favorite city in the size range so I was like wow this is a big old pile of hot bias but before you scream bias here's a list of some of the cities it didn't quite make the list so they're in this size range Toledo Ohio Youngstown Ohio Allentown and Scranton Pennsylvania Springfield Massachusetts Baton Rouge Louisiana Little Rock Arkansas whisset ah Kansas Bakersfield California and a few others so it's not that I'm really biased towards the ones that I like in this list as they they really are actually better I hope you enjoyed this video if you did please give me a thumbs up to let me know you approve and subscribe to this channel if you're interested in hearing more about u.s. geography traveled across the country road tripping across the country this all the geography stuff from a nerdy perspective but yeah thanks for watching geography king signing out you

Channel: Geography King

Views: 110,753

Keywords: geography, geography king, geography now, nick johnson, mr beat, through my lens, wolters world, world according to briggs

Id: QSbeAIEdT_Y

Length: 16min 39sec (999 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 11 2020