Great Lakes Megalopolis

Great Lakes Megalopolis
Megaregion of the U.S. and Canada
Toronto
Chicago
Detroit
Country	United States, Canada
Population	59,144,461

The Great Lakes Megalopolis consists of the group of North American metropolitan areas which surround the Great Lakes region and Saint Lawrence Seaway. It is mainly within the Midwestern United States, the Southern Ontario area of Canada, along with large parts of Pennsylvania, New York, and Quebec. It is the largest and most populated megalopolis in North America.

The region cuts a wide swath from Minneapolis to Pittsburgh and extends from the Duluth-Superior corridor, through the Green Bay-Kewaunee-Oconto corridor, the Milwaukee-Chicago corridor through the South Bend-Lansing-Kalamazoo corridor to the Detroit–Toledo corridor, and the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor and includes Cleveland, Akron, Erie, Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids, Ottawa, and Buffalo, reaching as far east as Rochester and Johnstown, and as far west as the Twin Cities. The region had an estimated population of 59,144,461 as of 2011. It is projected to reach a population of approximately 65 million by 2025.

There is substantial overlap between the megalopolis and the once-heavily industrial region known as the Rust Belt; however, the megalopolis and the Rust Belt are not entirely coextensive, and some metropolitan areas may be considered part of one region but not the other.

History of the concept

Map of the emerging American-Canadian megaregions.

The region was partially outlined as an emergent megalopolis in the 1961 book Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States by French geographer Jean Gottmann. Gottmann envisaged the development of other megalopolies in the U.S.: BosWash, from Boston to Washington, D.C., Chipitts from Chicago to Pittsburgh, and SanSan, from San Francisco to San Diego. In 1965, Herman Kahn speculated about the future of the three megalopoleis in the year 2000, referring to their names as "half-frivolous" and not mentioning Gottman. In the 1960s and 1970s, urban planner and architect Constantinos Doxiadis authored books, studies, and reports including those regarding the growth potential of the Great Lakes Megalopolis. Doxiadis envisioned Detroit as the central urban area in the Great Lakes Megalopolis. According to him, the megalopolis extended "from Milwaukee and Chicago to Detroit, Pittsburgh and Buffalo and into Canada from Windsor to Montreal and Quebec."

The Virginia Tech Metropolitan Institute's Beyond Megalopolis, an attempt to update Gottmann's work, outlined a similar "Midwest" megapolitan area as one of ten such areas in the United States (Canada is discussed tangentially). Over 200 million tons of cargo are shipped annually through the Great Lakes. Half the nation's population growth and two-thirds of its economic growth is expected to occur within the megaregions over the next four decades. The America 2050 project has identified eleven Megaregions of the United States, including the Great Lakes Megalopolis. In Canada, parts of the region are also referred to as the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor.

Economy

According to the Brookings Institution, if it stood alone as a country, the economy of the Great Lakes region which includes most of the Great Lakes Megalopolis, would be one of the largest economic units on earth (with a $4.5-trillion gross regional product). The Great Lakes contain one-fifth of the world's surface fresh water and have a combined shoreline of 10,210 miles (17,017 km). About 200 million tons of cargo are shipped by way of the Great Lakes each year.

Tourism is an important economic factor in and around the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Cruising Coalition supports passenger ship cruises through a joint U.S-Canadian venture to Great Lakes Ports and the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

Population centers

Rank	Area	State/ Province	Image	CSA/CMA 2009 population	Projected 2025 population	Projected increase 2009-2025	Projected % increase 2009-2025
1	Chicago	Illinois Indiana Wisconsin		9,804,845	10,746,109	941,264	9.6
2	Toronto	Ontario		5,741,400	7,787,000	2,045,600	35.6
3	Detroit	Michigan		5,318,744	5,199,608	-119,136	-2.2
4	Montreal	Quebec		3,859,300	4,246,931	387,631	10.1
5	Minneapolis – Saint Paul	Minnesota Wisconsin		3,604,460	4,031,000	426,540	11.8
6	Cleveland – Akron	Ohio		3,515,646	3,795,658	280,012	6.5
7	St. Louis	Missouri Illinois		2,892,874	3,049,000	156,126	5.4
8	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania		2,445,117	2,868,818	367,299	15.0
9	Cincinnati	Ohio Kentucky Indiana		2,214,954	2,448,000	233,046	10.5
10	Indianapolis	Indiana		1,928,982	2,270,112	341,130	16.5
11	Kansas City	Missouri Kansas		2,038,724	2,293,564	254,840	12.5
12	Columbus	Ohio		2,031,229	2,446,450	415,221	20.4
13	Milwaukee	Wisconsin		2,025,898	2,129,949	103,706	5.1
14	Ottawa – Gatineau	Ontario Quebec		1,451,415	1,596,556	145,141	10.0
15	Louisville	Kentucky Indiana		1,395,634	1,602,456	206,822	14.8
16	Grand Rapids	Michigan		1,327,366	1,530,000	202,634	15.3
17	Buffalo	New York		1,203,493	1,040,400	-163,093	-13.5
18	Rochester	New York		1,149,653	1,078,600	-71,053	-6.2
19	Dayton	Ohio		1,066,261	1,066,261	0	0
20	Hamilton	Ontario		740,200	954,858	214,658	29.1
21	Toledo	Ohio Michigan		672,220	672,220	0	0
22	Madison	Wisconsin		628,947	820,483	191,563	30.5
23	Youngstown-Warren-Boardman	Ohio Pennsylvania		602,964	N/A	N/A	N/A
24	South Bend-Mishawaka-Elkhart	Indiana Michigan		564,943	NA	NA	NA
25	Lansing	Michigan		523,609	547,325	23,716	4.6
26	Kitchener – Waterloo	Ontario		492,400	635,196	142,796	29.1
27	London	Ontario		492,200	634,938	142,738	29.1
28	Rockford	Illinois		455,595	499,400	43,805	9.9
29	Fort Wayne	Indiana		414,315	455,623	39,366	9.9
30	St. Catharines – Niagara	Ontario		404,400	521,676	117,276	29.0
31	Davenport-Rock Island-Moline	Iowa Illinois		379,690	452,565	72,875	26.1
32	Fox Cities	Wisconsin		360,000	NA	NA	NA
33	Oshawa	Ontario		356,177	419,067	62,890	17.7
34	Windsor	Ontario		330,900	426,861	95,961	29
35	Green Bay	Wisconsin		304,783	NA	NA	NA
36	Erie	Pennsylvania		280,985	N/A	N/A	N/A
37	Duluth-Superior	Minnesota Wisconsin		279,771	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Total CSA/CMA of major metro areas			59,781,623	65,735,336	6,234,698	10.0

Notes

A. ^ ^a Various sources include Montreal and Ottawa in the megalopolis, while excluding Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Columbus.

Gallery

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  Saint Paul

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  Fox Cities

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  Duluth

See also

• Combined Statistical Area
• Census Metropolitan Area
• Conurbation
• Great Lakes
• Megalopolis (city type)
• Megaregions of the United States
• Quebec City – Windsor Corridor