Generally, the greatest cities of the world in the year 1700, including Beijing, London, Tokyo and Istanbul, are still among the important cities today. Despite dramatic changes and pivotal events over the past three centuries, which include industrialization, wars, pandemics and political upheaval, large cities have remained resilient and have grown. The trend toward urbanization has been strong. In the United States, beginning with the first census in 1790, every subsequent count has testified to an ever-increasing rate of urbanization.

The 2020 census confirmed that many urban areas, including New York City, witnessed large population increases compared with the census recorded a decade earlier (the date of record of the census was April 1, 2020, before most pandemic-induced relocations occurred). However, with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent population dispersion and the rise in remote work that occurred in its wake, there has been a certain amount