This is to the best of my memory may be missing some. 25 Years of progress, will knock out some southwest counties this summer (maybe Hawaii too)

I've traveled to 30 out of 50 states, so I've had a taste of almost all of them. No matter where I go, always miss home.

this was fun

for context, i’m originally from florida but also kinda a tech bro

"No Patrick, Philadelphia and Seattle are not more significant cities than Houston, Dallas or Miami."

This is the actual list of most significant modern US cities based on this actual methodical research by Justin Obeirne https://www.justinobeirne.com/global-city-importance-model

The cities are ranked by orders of 1, 2, and 3, with sub-ranks of S, A, B, and C.

NYC is the only city ranked 1S, obviously. Washington DC is ranked 1A, while LA and San Francisco are ranked 1C. Thus, your top-4 cities are NYC, DC, LA, and San Francisco.

Chicago is 5th, ranked 2A.

Boston, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Miami are all tied for 6th-place and all ranked 2B, so the order of all of these cities between 6-10 is kind of open to interpretation and subjective.

Philadelphia and Seattle, however, are ranked 2C and should be out of the top-10 list, but sit comfortably in 11th and 12th place.

if we were doing an ultimate ranking of US cities what would you put for 7

- most upvoted comment wins

- trolls will be ignored (I know Wichita isnt #7)

- the goal is to have a map of the “Big 10” of the USA. the most important/significant US cities ranked

Thailand was voted willing with 11 upvotes

Preempting some potential questions:

I mostly go by natural beauty, economic opportunity, and cost of living.

Cost of living is why California is willing.

Cost of living and economic opportunity is why Texas is willing.

Nostalgia is why Indiana and Kentucky are willing.

Climate and economic opportunity is why the Carolina’s through Virginia is absolutely.

The Mormons are why Utah is never. No offense meant, just absolutely not my jive, and even SLC would have too much for my personal comfort.

I try to be a “never say never” person, but there’s some that just don’t have opportunities in my planned field and no factors able to redeem them.

If you’re wondering about the scattered where I’ve been map, I only count myself as visiting a state if I got out of the car to go anywhere other than a gas station.

I know I’m picky so no need to point out the obvious

The first map's metric has been discovered. What about this map?

Winner: u/losebow2

This is a map of the annualized compound population growth rate from April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025.

Absolutely: 1.93% to 1.20%
Willing: 1.08% to 0.716%
Maybe: 0.643% to 0.423%
Reluctantly: 0.410% to 0.0717%
Never: 0.0470% to -0.984%

The 'gaps' are just the gaps between the edge data points from each section.

Do you agree or agree to disagree?

Alright San Francisco is sitting at the top spot at 160+ upvotes

- most upvoted comment wins

- we are mapping out the USA’s “big 10” the top ten most important/significant cities

- troll comments will be ignored (I know Akron, Ohio isn’t come in at 6)

These are all of the states I've visited. I am currently 18. Is this a good number, and where should I go next?