Standardized Population Methology
A less arbitrary way to measure population
Author: Victor Thibert
I see conversations like this way too often:
Motivation: I've found that people often use population numbers to make assertions about certain cities (e.g. whether they could support an expansion NBA team, the size of the real estate market, etc.) which I am all for. The problem is that there are many ways of evaluating a city's true size, none of which I feel paint the true picture (the most misleading of them being City Proper Population, which is based on historical and very arbitrary boundaries). You can see very quickly below how wildly the top US cities fluctuate in rank across the methodologies.
I am developing an algorithm that will standardize city population, eliminating the human element from the equation. My hope is that this will make for a better way of making cross-city comparisons.
Technical Details: Soon to be published once polished up! (Essentially, maximize city radius while maintain set population density)