chapotraphouse

I suggest always using the "metro area" population for cities in most cases, as the division between a city and a "suburb" is almost always a political one, rather than an economic one.

An outsider who had never been to LV before or looked at a political map of the area would not walk/drive around and then conclude that it is a city of 600k people. Not to mention that the Vegas strip that is the economic focal point of the city is not even in city limits.

(Particularly in North America) City limits are developed for the purposes of "superstructuring" class society, they don't really exist on their own terms. A proper [socialist] government would incorporate key metro areas into a strong regional government to smooth this out.