City Sector Model

With a great deal of success, urban development elites have been able to sustain the illusion that Central Business Districts or downtowns are still the functional metropolitan centres they were five decades ago.  read more »

Modern economies are increasingly driven by talent supply, and talent is often associated with the level of formal education degrees. Yet, across the Atlantic there are large differences in the unemployment rates of highly educated people.  read more »

Anyone who follow me here knows I write quite a bit about Midwestern cities. They’re what I know best and love most.  read more »

Does anyone really think about the relationship a city has to its surrounding metro area? It means a lot more than you might think.  read more »

The new data on net domestic migration between major metropolitan areas (more than 1,000,000 residents) over the last three years (July 2020 to July 2023) shows a strong movement of people away from higher urban densities to lower urban densities.  read more »

The latest American Community Survey data (2022) indicates that higher density condo living is strongly correlated with lower rates of home ownership than among detached or attached houses. The table below provides US data as well as data for the 56 major metropolitan areas by residential building density.

National Home Ownership by Type of Residential Building: Overall, 65.2% of US households owned their own homes  read more »

Demographia International Housing Affordability assesses housing affordability in 94 major markets across eight nations (Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom and the, United States).  read more »

Moving Away from the Major Metros: The recent Census Bureau population estimates release revealed a massive shift of domestic migrants away from the major metropolitan areas  read more »

According to the 2021 census, Hong Kong grew from a population of 7.337 million in 2016 to 7.413 million. This article describes the population and population densities of Hong Kong and its major areas.  read more »

Defining "Built-Up Urban Area"

The term urban area refers to a continuously built landmass devoted to urban development. Unlike metropolitan areas, urban areas have no rural land within their boundaries.  read more »