# New York is the only US city with an urban core growing faster than the suburbs

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2017-12-14

american-community-survey, boston, chicago, exurban, new-geography, new-york-city, philadelphia, population-growth, san-francisco, suburban, uncategorized, us-cities

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The latest data from the American Community Survey (2012 to 2016) has placed the suburban and exurban share of the US population (53 major metropolitan areas) at 85.5%. Back in 2000 this number was thought to be around 83.5%.

Since 2010, automobile oriented suburbs and exurbs have also accounted for 90.5% of population growth. The US – and Canada would be no different – is by and large a suburban nation. And the data suggests this isn’t about to change.  

The one exception is the New York metro area. From 2012 to 2016, 74% of its growth happened in the urban core. No other major metropolitan area in the US comes close to this sort of urbanity. Below is a chart from [New Geography](http://www.newgeography.com/content/005823-suburbs-exurbs-grab-nearly-all-metropolitan-growth) that shows you how NYC compares.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/1c5e8964c0f2d9491900d2567ed6d20b.jpg)

All of the data for this post was also taken from [New Geography](http://www.newgeography.com/content/005823-suburbs-exurbs-grab-nearly-all-metropolitan-growth).

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/new-york-is-the-only-us-city-with-an-urban-core-growing-faster-than-the-suburbs)*