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Las Vegas, Nevada, is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States. Las Vegas grew from a population of 1,375,765 in 2000 to 1,951,269 in 2010, a 41.8% increase, third highest in the country for that decade. These images show the rapid growth of the city. The tip of Lake Mead is visible east of the city (dark area), where Hoover Dam impounds the Colorado River.
We have created an animation to make it easier to visualize the progression of the changes in Las Vegas. Click the subsection “Change Animation” to view that short video.
Population growth of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 2,266,715 |
| 2010 | 1,951,269 |
| 2000 | 1,375,765 |
| 1992 | 863,000 |
| 1986 | 608,000 |
| 1972 | 273,000 |
| 1964 | 127,000 |
Location
Sep. 13, 1972, Landsat 1 (path/row 42/35) — Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Sep. 10, 1986, Landsat 5 (path/row 39/35) — Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Sep. 10, 1992, Landsat 5 (path/row 39/35) — Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Sep. 24, 2000, Landsat 7 (path/row 39/35) — Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Aug. 11, 2010, Landsat 5 (path/row 39/35) — Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Aug. 9, 2021, Landsat 8 (path/row 39/35) — Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Additional Imagery & Stories
Change Animation
If you could speed up time and watch a fast-growing city like Las Vegas change, what would it look like? From the perspective of the Landsat satellite...
Impervious Surface
NLCD images of western Las Vegas show that much more urban expansion took place here between 2001 and 2006 than over the next 5 years. The land cover ...
Lake Las Vegas
Between 1986 and 1992, a lake appeared east of the city, along Las Vegas Wash, a riparian area. This is Lake Las Vegas, a privately owned lake that is...
Lake Mead
How is Las Vegas getting enough water for its expanding population? Most of it comes from Lake Mead on the Colorado River. The Colorado River provides...
Land Cover Maps
The images displayed in this section show a different way of looking at change over time. These images are part of the National Land Cover Database (N...
Near Lake Mead
These close-up NLCD images show the water level changes to western Lake Mead. The water classification (blue) changes to barren ground (gray) as the l...
Southwestern Las Vegas
Zooming in on the southwestern portion of the city reveals further urban and suburban changes. McCarran International Airport expanded in this timefra...
Western Urban Expansion
In these false-color images, bright green indicates vegetation. As the city expands, you can see a sort of land cover succession as people build on th...
References
Auch, Roger, Taylor, Janis, and Acevedo, William, 2004, Urban Growth in American Cities—Glimpses of U.S. Urbanization: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1252, 52 p. Available online at http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/cir1252.
Christie, Les, 2011, 10 fastest-growing cities: CNNMoney, available at http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/real_estate/1103/gallery.Fastest_gr…. (Accessed February 15, 2012.)
Famighetti, Robert, ed., 1996, World almanac and book of facts 1997: New York, World Almanac Books, 975 p.
Glionna, J., 2015, Lake Mead water level falls to a landmark low, and is likely to get worse: Los Angeles Times, accessed March 18, 2016, at http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-lake-mead-low-20150429-story.html.
Homer, C.G., Dewitz, J.A., Yang, L., Jin, S., Danielson, P., Xian, G., Coulston, J., Herold, N.D., Wickham, J.D., and Megown, K., 2015, Completion of the 2011 National Land Cover Database for the conterminous United States-Representing a decade of land cover change information: Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, v. 81, no. 5, p. 345–354.
Homer, C.H., Fry, J.A., and Barnes C.A., 2012, The National Land Cover Database, U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2012-3020, 4 p.
Las Vegas Wash Project Coordination Team, 2012, Las Vegas Wash Coordination Committee: Southern Nevada Water Authority, available at http://www.lvwash.org. (Accessed April 24, 2012.)
Multi-Resolution Land Characteristcs Consortium (MRLC), 2015, National Land Cover Database 2011 (NLCD 2011)—Product Legend: MRLC Web page accessed March 24, 2016, at http://www.mrlc.gov/nlcd11_leg.php.
NYCAviation, 2010, Las Vegas McCarran Int’l Airport history and general information: NYCAviation, available at http://nycaviation.com/spotting-guides/las/las-general-information. (Accessed February 15, 2012.)
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 2016, Lake Mead at Hoover Dam, Elevation (Feet): U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, accessed March 18, 2016, at http://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g4000/hourly/mead-elv.html.
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 2016, Lower Colorado River Water Supply Report: River Operations, Bureau of Reclamation, accessed March 18, 2016, at http://www.usbr.gov/lc/riverops.html.
U.S. Census Bureau, 2019, Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area Population Totals Tables--2010-2019: accessed September 15, 2020, at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/metro-micro/data/tables.html.
U.S. Geological Survey, 2014, National Land Cover Database 2011—Status and Plans: USGS Multimedia Gallery Web page, accessed April 1, 2016, at http://gallery.usgs.gov/videos/806#.Vv69b3rdeYg.
U.S. Geological Survey, 2015, The USGS Water Science School: USGS Web page, accessed April 1, 2016, at http://water.usgs.gov/edu/impervious.html.
Wickham, J., Homer, C., Vogelmann, J., McKerrow, A., Mueller, R., Herold, N., and Coulston, J., 2014, The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium—20 Years of Development and Integration of USA National Land Cover Data: Remote Sensing, v. 6, no. 8, p. 7424–7441.
Xian, G., Homer, C., Dewitz, J., Fry, J., Hossain, N., and Wickham, J., 2011. The change of impervious surface area between 2001 and 2006 in the conterminous United States: Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, v. 77, no. 8, p. 758–762.