In a thread below titled, "Kids", Jim Cox from New Zealand had the following comment. "Christchurch is not a big city (population circa 300k) and, thank heavens, we don't have the US's problems with guns and drugs."
To me, a city of 300,000 is HUGE. We have one in the entire State over that population. There are only two more within a 250 miles radius of where I spend most of my time and I'm not licensed in those States.
The following link lists the 290 cities in the US with populations over 100,000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_the_United_States_with_over_100,000_people
It is easy to recognize the differences between surveying in metropolitan areas and the wide open spaces. Here in the boondocks we are lucky to find any surveys with monuments to follow. We must "reinvent the wheel" far too often. Meanwhile, I can imagine some of you working in areas that have dozens of record surveys within a stone's throw of the corners of the tract you are working with.
Our little town has a population of between 4,000 and 5,000 and its the County Seat. Our whole County only has a little over 20,000. I live six miles outside of the city limits. Its a mile by road to our nearest neighbor. Maybe 1/2 to 3/4 mile as the crow flies. The city we are working in where the kids are giving us problems is two counties away and I would guess the population is over 100,000. I prefer small town living and especially out in the boondocks where we live. Its a tough living in such a rural area though.
I live in an area of about 60K people, with a working range of 100 miles or so to include another 60K.
There are about 7 or 8 surveyors in my competition range. Big projects bring guys up from Phoenix or down from Vegas, and they low ball them into some other realm of profitability. I can't compete, nor do I wish to. Funny how I sometimes get to "fix" their GPS generated problems. I love that, as do my local peers.
I moved from Grand Rapids MI with about 600K people and 30 or so surveyors. Prices here in sunny AZ are about double what they were in the Great Lake State.. Not really sure what that means in the big picture, but I'm tending to think that if a little guy finds a niche and can run with.... Run Forrest Run... all the way to the bank.
Great post Mr Cow. Thanks
I'm based in a 'City' between 2 cities. I have Brisbane City to the north ~1 million people (Capital of Queensland) and Gold Coast City to the south ~600k.
Logan City Council has a population of 300k.
You can get rural blocks within 30 min and there has been quite a few times that I have gone in search of a reference tree that noone has sighted in the last 50+ years. The oldest was finding a tree from a plan completed in 1917.
Luckily though, most days I don't have to work with a plan that's more than a decade old and there are nice handy PSM's or Screw/Nail in kerb, painted and easy to find.
500 in my town.
Littleton is the big town in my area which has 4,400.
I live and mostly work in Montgomery County, VA. As of 2012, the population was 95,626
I live in the town of Christiansburg (formerly Hans Meadows). The population was 21,041 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Montgomery County
I also often work in Blacksburg. It is an incorporated town with a population of 42,620 (many, if not about half that number are Virginia Tech related some how, so that is not a year round population). It is the largest town in Virginia (15th largest incorporated entity in VA - we have independent Cities here, which are like counties).
96,000 - 21,000 = 75,000 - 43,000 = 32,000 Montgomery County residents.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I also work in the city of Radford. In 2010 the population was 16,408.
I also work in Pulaski County, which has a population of 34,872.
So while these numbers look like it's a little crowded here, it is actually mostly rural and suburban.... And I like it that way.
I compete with about 8 to 10 surveying (a few with engineering) companies, and we're all mostly slow right now.
Carl
My Town has about 5k to 6k year round residents with over 50% retired. A good number of those folks head south for the winter.
In the summer we get somewhere between 25k and 35k. We enjoy the 'best' and 'brightest' from Conn., NY, NJ and so on. For those of you in those parts, you are welcome for taking these fine folks off your hands for two months.
I live in a city of around 70,000 with a major university (UC Davis) immediately adjacent. Both are located in Yolo County, which has a population of around 200,000. The county is a mix of small cities and lots of open ag land. I do most of my work in Yolo County, a fair amount of it on campus.
Sacramento is about 15 miles away. It's the 4th largest metro area in the state, with a population of about 2.5M. I rarely work there; few clients see a reason to call an out-of-county surveyor when there are lots of them located in-county.
There are less than 10 (and probably more like 5) active surveyors based in Yolo County, though plenty of outfits come in from Sacramento or other nearby cities, especially for the larger construction projects. I do very little construction staking, so I don't mind. (And it wouldn't matter if I did!)
Houston is the fourth most populous city in the nation (trailing only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago), and is the largest in the southern U.S. and Texas.
The Houston-Galveston-Brazoria Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (Houston CMSA) consists of eight counties: Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery and Waller
The Houston CMSA covers 8,778 square miles, an area slightly smaller than Massachusetts but larger than New Jersey.
Founded in 1836, the City of Houston has a 2010 population of 2.1 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau -- www.census.gov. Houston's population in 1850 was listed as 2,396.
The metro area's population of 5.95 million in 2010 is 6th largest among U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, according to www.census.gov, and a 26% increase since 2000.
Harris County's population is 4,092,459.
We have a few people where I live and work.
