50 states + DC + Puerto Rico · data updated July 2026

The Biggest City in Every US State

This lists the single largest incorporated city or Census-designated place, by resident population, in each of the 50 US states, plus DC and Puerto Rico, using U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. "Biggest" here means the city itself, not its surrounding metro area -- for several states (e.g. Virginia, New Jersey) the largest metro is anchored by a city outside the state or a different core city than shown here.

52
Places ranked
New York
Largest overall
8,516,202
Its population

Data updated July 2026

A note on this ranking: "Biggest" ranks the city's own population, not its metro area. A state's largest CITY and its largest METRO AREA are not always the same place -- for example New Jersey has no single dominant city the way most states do, and several state capitals are far smaller than that state's largest city. 1 of these places (Washington) have only one incorporated city or CDP in our dataset, so no in-state runner-up comparison applies to them.

Burlington, VT is the smallest state-leading city on this list at 44,649 residents -- still the biggest place in its state, just in a state with no large cities at all.

Where the #1 city dominates most

Population margin over the state's #2 city (%), top 12 states

% larger than the state's #2 city

What this shows New York, NY leads its state's #2 city (Buffalo) by 2,981%, the largest in-state population gap of any state's leading city; the smallest gap is Charleston, WV at 4% over Huntington.

Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates (2023) As of 2023
State Biggest City Population
New York New York 8,516,202
California Los Angeles 3,857,897
Illinois Chicago 2,707,648
Texas Houston 2,300,419
Arizona Phoenix 1,624,832
Pennsylvania Philadelphia 1,582,432
Florida Jacksonville 961,739
Ohio Columbus 906,480
North Carolina Charlotte 886,283
Indiana Indianapolis city (balance) 882,043
Washington Seattle 741,440
Colorado Denver 713,734
Oklahoma Oklahoma City 688,693
Tennessee Nashville-Davidson metropolitan government (balance) 684,298
District of Columbia Washington 672,079
Massachusetts Boston 663,972
Nevada Las Vegas 650,873
Oregon Portland 642,715
Michigan Detroit 636,644
Kentucky Louisville/Jefferson County metro government (balance) 627,210
Maryland Baltimore 577,193
Wisconsin Milwaukee 569,756
New Mexico Albuquerque 562,488
Missouri Kansas City 508,233
Georgia Atlanta 499,287
Nebraska Omaha 488,197
Virginia Virginia Beach 457,066
Minnesota Minneapolis 426,845
Kansas Wichita 396,488
Louisiana New Orleans 376,035
Hawaii Urban Honolulu 346,323
Puerto Rico San Juan zona urbana 320,691
New Jersey Newark 307,188
Alaska Anchorage 289,069
Idaho Boise City 235,701
Alabama Huntsville 218,814
Iowa Des Moines 212,464
Utah Salt Lake City 203,888
Arkansas Little Rock 202,739
South Dakota Sioux Falls 197,642
Rhode Island Providence 190,214
South Carolina Charleston 152,014
Mississippi Jackson 149,827
Connecticut Bridgeport 148,012
North Dakota Fargo 129,064
Montana Billings 118,321
New Hampshire Manchester 115,415
Delaware Wilmington 71,124
Maine Portland 68,505
Wyoming Cheyenne 64,976
West Virginia Charleston 47,918
Vermont Burlington 44,649

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (2023 vintage, released December 2024), this ranks the single largest tracked place in each of the 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico, out of 28,702 total US places in our dataset. See our methodology for the full data-collection process.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates (2023). Verify directly with the source agency: U.S. Census Bureau.

What to do with this list

Use this to see which cities anchor each state, then dig into the specific places you're considering.

  • New York, NY is the largest state-leading city overall at 8,516,202 -- see its full profile. New York profile
  • Put two specific cities side by side across every tracked metric, not just population. Compare cities
  • See every ranked city in New York together, not just its state leader. New York state page

This ranking reflects city (place) population only, not metro-area population -- a state's largest metro can be centered on a different city than its largest incorporated place.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Primary source: Census ACS.

Related

100 most populous cities → | Browse all city profiles → | Explore city rankings →
Data sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCities

Verify with U.S. Census Bureau →

Every figure on PlainCities is rendered directly from Census ACS source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on Census ACS source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.