The 11 Emerging Mega-Regions Of The United States

The map above shows the Regional Plan Association’s list of 11 Mega-Regions of the United States as part of their America 2050 project.

In terms of the estimated population in 2025 they would rank in the following order: (population in 2010)

1. Great Lakes: 60.7 million (55.5 million) – includes Chicago, Toronto, and Detroit
2. Northeast: 58.4 million (52.3 million) – includes New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington
3. Southern California: 29 million (24.4 million) – includes Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas
4. Texas Triangle: 24.8 million (19.7 million) – includes Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin
5. Piedmont Atlantic: 21.7 million (17.6 million) – includes Atlanta
6. Florida: 21.5 million (17.3 million) – includes Miami, Orlando, and Tampa Bay
7. Northern California: 16.4 million (14 million) – includes San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland
8. Gulf Coast: 16.3 million (13.4 million) – includes Houston and New Orleans
9. Cascadia: 13.5 million (12.4 million) – includes Vancouver. Seattle and Portland
10. Arizona Sun Corridor: 7.8 million (5.6 million) – includes Phoenix
11. Front Range: 6.9 million (5.5 million) – includes Denver

Notes:

• The populations given for megalopoleis that extend into Canada and Mexico (Cascadia, Great Lakes, and Southern California) include their non-U.S. residents.
• Houston appears twice (as part of Gulf Coast and Texas Triangle).

You can read the Wikipedia article to learn more about where the whole idea for these comes from.

For more on Mega Regions have a look at the following books:

• Megaregions: Planning for Global Competitiveness
• Megaregions: transportation planning in the U.S.
• Megaregions: Globalization’s New Urban Form?

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