Phoenix is 5th largest city
Well, we mentioned this a few months ago, but apparently now it is official. Here is text from an article in the AZ Republic this week.
For more than a year, Phoenix has looked forward to surpassing Philadelphia in population to become the nation's fifth-largest city. It didn't happen quite as fast as projected, but results of Maricopa County's official mid-decade census have ended the wait.
Phoenix had 1,475,834 residents as of Sept. 1, or 12,013 more than the Census Bureau estimated for Philadelphia as of July 1. Phoenix has been growing by an average of 77 people a day, and Philadelphia is losing population at 27 a day, so the two-month differential doesn't matter in the rankings.
Still, metropolitan Philadelphia can thumb its nose at metropolitan Phoenix. The Philly region, with 5.8 million people, is fourth-largest in the nation. Metro Phoenix, at 3.7 million, ranks 14th.
Sharon Kotula, ABR