“Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want, about any subject. So you know you are getting the best possible information.”
Michael Scott, The Office
Wikipedia really is the best thing ever. I try to contribute to it when I can, because the value is immeasurable. As an internet rabbit hole it is the number one time-suck in my life, so I keep an eye out for Mad Hatters and sadistic, lollipop-wielding potentates.
Among my favorite Wikipedia articles are statistical rankings of geopolitical entities. In other words, I like to see what cities are bigger than other cities, and how they have changed.
For my soccer friends, the best use of this is in measuring the relative size of professional soccer markets, both real and imagined. I use this page when making claims:
Wikipedia contributors. (2019, March 23). List of metropolitan statistical areas. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
It’s not perfect for all debates of this type. For example you might notice that gigantic contiguous metro areas like the San Francisco Bay and Greater Los Angeles are broken into two “Metropolitan Statistical Areas” each, which throw off the rankings slightly. But still. If you want to prove to someone on Twitter that there are more people in the Valley of the Sun than in all of San Diego County, look no further.
You can sort by the 2010 Census figures, 2017 estimates, or the percentage change over that time. Austin, Texas has grown by an astonishing 23.28% over that time, by the way, passing up Columbus, Cleveland and Indianapolis.
So the next time you want to literally stack your town against another, surf on over to Wikipedia, but try to steer clear of the Mad Hatter. There are other things in life, after all.