Las Vegas, United States Population

Population in Urban Area, now

2,857,057
  • World: 185th
  • North America: 25th
  • United States: 19th

Las Vegas Urban Area Population Graph

Las Vegas Population Review

The glittering lights of famous Las Vegas are deep in the desert of Nevada, USA. This internationally renowned gambling and partying destination has long been known as Sin City for its debaucherous adult delights, which included gambling, adult venues, prostitution, and the wide availability of alcohol. Las Vegas is the most populous city in Nevada with 2.7 million people in the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area. Within the city itself, there are some 650,000 residents.

Las Vegas is a young city. Founded in 1905, the population has boomed in a relatively short amount of time. By 2005, Las Vegas’ population had ballooned to 1.5 million residents. In ten more years, the population had jumped again to 2.2 million, and from there it’s only expected to keep rising. Predictions show that the population of the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area will reach 3.3 million people by 2035.

The Entertainment Capital of the World

Tourists and visitors come from wide and far to visit the city, with many considering a visit to the city a “bucket list” item. In 2017, there were 39 million tourists that visited Las Vegas, which amounts to over 100,000 people arriving every day, with the lightest month for tourism being December. Out of these people, 47% listed that they were coming for “vacation or pleasure”, 12% came strictly to gamble, and 11% came to visit friends or family.

The Las Vegas tunnel people

There is a rarely heard of faction of Las Vegas’ population that lives beneath the streets of the city. A labyrinth of flood tunnels beneath the glittering city is where some 1,000 people call home, eking out an existence. Many people living in the tunnels were forced there by bankruptcy, drug addictions, and evictions. The maze of tunnels has become home to a kind of community, with a graffiti-filled “art gallery”, and even children living in the tunnels. But this is not to say the flood tunnels are a safe or comfortable home. Several documentaries have even been made about the tunnel people.

While not everyone is there to gamble, almost everyone does

Las Vegas’ is not just the city for partiers and gamblers anymore. The city has started to change its identity to attract more families and senior citizens, and it is also a popular location for conventions. 41% of the people who visit Las Vegas will attend a Broadway-style show and 26% attend a show by a big name headliner. But even if only 15% of visitors to the city come specifically to gamble, statistics show that 71% will gamble during their time in the city. They will spend about 2.9 hours per day gambling, and their gambling budget is around $575. 60% of these people will visit between five and ten different casinos and 88% of people who gambled do so on the Strip. With somewhere close to 200,000 slot machines in the city, it’s hard not to gamble during a visit there.

Racial makeup

Much of Las Vegas’ population is made up of non-Hispanic whites and Hispanic whites. 62% of the population identifies this way, with black or African American people making up 11% of the population and the rest of the populace split between Asian, mixed race, and Native American. In 1990, 72% of the population was made up of non-Hispanic whites. That has since declined to 47% of the population in 2010, even as other ethnicities have increased within the population. Interestingly, Las Vegas has also been shown to have the second lowest level of black-white segregation of any of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, after Tucson, Arizona.

Review Updated: July 9, 2020
Las Vegas Strip in Nevada on a sunny dayLas Vegas Strip in Nevada on a sunny day

Las Vegas Urban Area Population History

1950 35,000
1951 38,000
1952 42,000
1953 47,000
1954 51,000
1955 56,000
1956 62,000
1957 69,000
1958 75,000
1959 83,000
1960 92,000
1961 101,000
1962 111,000
1963 123,000
1964 135,000
1965 149,000
1966 164,000
1967 181,000
1968 200,000
1969 220,000
1970 240,000
1971 255,000
1972 271,000
1973 288,000
1974 306,000
1975 325,000
1976 345,000
1977 367,000
1978 389,000
1979 414,000
1980 438,000
1981 459,000
1982 482,000
1983 505,000
1984 530,000
1985 556,000
1986 583,000
1987 612,000
1988 642,000
1989 673,000
1990 708,000
1991 755,000
1992 804,000
1993 857,000
1994 913,000
1995 973,000
1996 1,036,000
1997 1,104,000
1998 1,176,000
1999 1,253,000
2000 1,326,000
2001 1,375,000
2002 1,425,000
2003 1,478,000
2004 1,532,000
2005 1,589,000
2006 1,647,000
2007 1,708,000
2008 1,771,000
2009 1,836,000
2010 1,903,000
2011 1,973,000
2012 2,046,000
2013 2,121,000
2014 2,199,000
2015 2,280,000
2016 2,364,000
2017 2,451,000
2018 2,541,000
2019 2,621,000
2020 2,699,000
2021 2,772,000
2022 2,839,000
2023 2,899,000
2024 2,953,000

Las Vegas Urban Area Population Projections

2025 3,000,000
2026 3,041,000
2027 3,078,000
2028 3,112,000
2029 3,143,000
2030 3,173,000
2031 3,202,000
2032 3,230,000
2033 3,258,000
2034 3,285,000
2035 3,312,000

Map of Las Vegas, United States

Other Biggest Cities in the United States