r/dataisbeautiful • u/TA-MajestyPalm • 4d ago

OC [OC] Post-Pandemic Population Growth Trends, by US Metro Area (2022->2024)

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Graphic by me, created in Excel. All data from US Census here: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-total-metro-and-micro-statistical-areas.html

I've created similar graphics in the past, but usually from 2020-2024. This is not the best time frame as it combines the abnormal covid years with post pandemic movement.

This time frame (2022-2024) shows the most current and ongoing population trends of the last 2 years.

I also wanted to better categorize the cities into broad cultural regions vs the arbitrary geographic census regions.

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u/Waste_Molasses_936 3d ago

No wonder I-4 has gone from bad to abysmal since 2020. What used to take 1.5 hours from Tampa to Orland for the last 30 years is now: 1.5 hours to ???? at any time of day

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u/IBJON 3d ago

It doesn't help that they can't seem to figure out that section between sand lake and Disney. It doesn't matter what time of day it is, it's always backed up for miles for seemingly no reason.

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u/capt_jazz 3d ago

Remember, when in doubt the reason for traffic is lack of public transit, bike infrastructure, and side walks, as well as terrible car-centric urban planning.

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u/Nailcannon 3d ago

I realize you don't understand the layout of orlando to be making this claim. Both Universal and disney have a direct incentive to not improve infrastructure between them because you want to keep people in your walled garden. Beyond that, we already have lynx bus routes that go all over the area. 302 and 303 will get you from universal to disney. Granted, those take I4. if you want to avoid I4, routes 38 to 350 will do the same. The only hope for rail would be to run it along I4. But again, who's going to pay for it? Neither of the parks want it. And then who's going to use it? How many families coming to Orlando have the luxury of going to both universal and disney? The vast vast majority choose one or the other. A huge amount of the traffic on that section is because there is a metric fuck ton of hotels on international drive just south of universal, and many of those people are families who wanted to go to disney but either didnt want to pay disney hotel prices or wanted to stay somewhere more central to the action, where disney is a bit out of the way.