I was surprised by the last clause in your last sentence, but you’re absolutely right. https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/reference/ua/ua_list_all.tx...

LA edges out NYC: 7000 to 5300. Presumably in individuals per square mile.

It all depends on where you draw the lines. When people think of LA they think of that whole sprawling metropolis between the mountains (what is technically the LA basis or the LA metro area) - but the City of Los Angeles is a smaller denser portion of that.

And when people think New York City they think Manhattan, but New York City includes quite a bit more.

The City of Los Angeles is still over 4 million people, more than most states.

And on land twice the size of Singapore.

The Census has recently started adopting population-weighted density because census areas are defined at the county level, so can be misleading due to differences in county definition by state. https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollecti...

I’d love to hear how you came up with that.