Wed, 23 Jan 2008
Smallest state capitals
I think it was James Kushner who first suggested that I consider the
question of which U.S. state capital had the smallest population in
relation to its state's largest city. For example, New York City is
the largest city in the United States, but the state capital of New
York State is Albany, with a population of about 850,000. The
population of New York City exceeds that of Albany by a factor of
around 20.
At the other end of the scale, of course, we have state capitals like Boston, Denver, Atlanta, and Honolulu that are their state's largest cities. For these states, the population quotient is 1, its theoretical minimum.
Well, James, it only took me thirty years, but here it is.
I tried to resolve the question manually a few weeks ago, by browsing Wikipedia for the populations of likely candidates. Today I took a more methodical approach, downloading the U.S. Census Bureau's July 2006 estimates for populations of metropolitan areas, and writing a couple of little programs to grovel the data.
I had to augment the Census Bureau's data with two items: Annapolis, MD, and Montpelier, VT are not large enough to be included in the metropolitan area data file. I used U.S. Census 2006 estimates for these cities as well.
I discarded one conurbation: the Census Bureau includes a "Metropolitan Division" in New Hampshire that consists of Rockingham and Strafford counties; this was the most populous identified area in New Hampshire. It didn't seem entirely germane to the question, so I took it out. On the other hand, including it doesn't change the results much: its population is 416,000, compared with Manchester-Nashua's 402,000.
The results follow.
| State | Capital and its Population | Largest metropolitan area and its population | Quotient | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MD | Annapolis | 36,408 | Baltimore-Towson | 2,658,405 | 73 | .02 |
| IL | Springfield | 206,112 | Chicago-Naperville-Joliet | 9,505,748 | 46 | .12 |
| NV | Carson City | 55,289 | Las Vegas-Paradise | 1,777,539 | 32 | .15 |
| VT | Montpelier | 7,954 | Burlington-South Burlington | 206,007 | 25 | .90 |
| NY | Albany | 850,957 | New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island | 18,818,536 | 22 | .11 |
| MO | Jefferson City | 144,958 | St. Louis | 2,796,368 | 19 | .29 |
| KY | Frankfort | 69,068 | Louisville-Jefferson County | 1,222,216 | 17 | .70 |
| FL | Tallahassee | 336,502 | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach | 5,463,857 | 16 | .24 |
| WA | Olympia | 234,670 | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue | 3,263,497 | 13 | .91 |
| AK | Juneau | 30,737 | Anchorage | 359,180 | 11 | .69 |
| PA | Harrisburg | 525,380 | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington | 5,826,742 | 11 | .09 |
| SD | Pierre | 19,761 | Sioux Falls | 212,911 | 10 | .77 |
| MI | Lansing | 454,044 | Detroit-Warren-Livonia | 4,468,966 | 9 | .84 |
| NJ | Trenton | 367,605 | Edison | 2,308,777 | 6 | .28 |
| CA | Sacramento | 2,067,117 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana | 12,950,129 | 6 | .26 |
| NM | Santa Fe | 142,407 | Albuquerque | 816,811 | 5 | .74 |
| OR | Salem | 384,600 | Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton | 2,137,565 | 5 | .56 |
| DE | Dover | 147,601 | Wilmington | 691,688 | 4 | .69 |
| VA | Richmond | 1,194,008 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria | 5,290,400 | 4 | .43 |
| ME | Augusta | 121,068 | Portland-South Portland-Biddeford | 513,667 | 4 | .24 |
| TX | Austin | 1,513,565 | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | 6,003,967 | 3 | .97 |
| AL | Montgomery | 361,748 | Birmingham-Hoover | 1,100,019 | 3 | .04 |
| NE | Lincoln | 283,970 | Omaha-Council Bluffs | 822,549 | 2 | .90 |
| WI | Madison | 543,022 | Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis | 1,509,981 | 2 | .78 |
| NH | Concord | 148,085 | Manchester-Nashua | 402,789 | 2 | .72 |
| KS | Topeka | 228,894 | Wichita | 592,126 | 2 | .59 |
| MT | Helena | 70,558 | Billings | 148,116 | 2 | .10 |
| ND | Bismarck | 101,138 | Fargo | 187,001 | 1 | .85 |
| NC | Raleigh | 994,551 | Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord | 1,583,016 | 1 | .59 |
| LA | Baton Rouge | 766,514 | New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner | 1,024,678 | 1 | .34 |
| OH | Columbus | 1,725,570 | Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor | 2,114,155 | 1 | .23 |
| AR | Little Rock | 652,834 | Little Rock-North Little Rock | 652,834 | 1 | .00 |
| AZ | Phoenix | 4,039,182 | Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale | 4,039,182 | 1 | .00 |
| CO | Denver | 2,408,750 | Denver-Aurora | 2,408,750 | 1 | .00 |
| CT | Hartford | 1,188,841 | Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford | 1,188,841 | 1 | .00 |
| GA | Atlanta | 5,138,223 | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta | 5,138,223 | 1 | .00 |
| HI | Honolulu | 909,863 | Honolulu | 909,863 | 1 | .00 |
| IA | Des Moines | 534,230 | Des Moines-West Des Moines | 534,230 | 1 | .00 |
| ID | Boise | 567,640 | Boise City-Nampa | 567,640 | 1 | .00 |
| IN | Indianapolis | 1,666,032 | Indianapolis-Carmel | 1,666,032 | 1 | .00 |
| MA | Boston | 4,455,217 | Boston-Cambridge-Quincy | 4,455,217 | 1 | .00 |
| MN | St. Paul | 3,175,041 | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | 3,175,041 | 1 | .00 |
| MS | Jackson | 529,456 | Jackson | 529,456 | 1 | .00 |
| OK | Oklahoma City | 1,172,339 | Oklahoma City | 1,172,339 | 1 | .00 |
| RI | Providence | 1,612,989 | Providence-New Bedford-Fall River | 1,612,989 | 1 | .00 |
| SC | Columbia | 703,771 | Columbia | 703,771 | 1 | .00 |
| TN | Nashville | 1,455,097 | Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro | 1,455,097 | 1 | .00 |
| UT | Salt Lake City | 1,067,722 | Salt Lake City | 1,067,722 | 1 | .00 |
| WV | Charleston | 305,526 | Charleston | 305,526 | 1 | .00 |
| WY | Cheyenne | 85,384 | Cheyenne | 85,384 | 1 | .00 |
Vermont is an interesting outlier here. It makes fourth place not because it has a large city, but because its capital, Montpelier, is so very small. I tried doing some scatter plots, to see if anything else jumped out, but they weren't very illuminating. If anything, the data is suprisingly evenly distributed. Here's an example:
[ Addendum 20080129: Some remarks about the format of the Census Bureau's data file. ]
[ Addendum 20090217: A comparison of the relative sizes of each state's largest and second-largest cities. ]
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