Primate city

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Colombo, the primate city of Sri Lanka; it is 45 times larger than Kandy, the country's second-largest city. Colombo sunset aerial Pano (29446036634).jpg
Colombo, the primate city of Sri Lanka; it is 45 times larger than Kandy, the country's second-largest city.
Countries without a national primate city highlighted in red Countries without a primate city.svg
Countries without a national primate city highlighted in red

A primate city [1] is a city that is the largest in its country, province, state, or region, and disproportionately larger than any others in the urban hierarchy. [2] A primate city distribution is a rank-size distribution that has one very large city with many much smaller cities and towns and no intermediate-sized urban centers, creating a statistical king effect. [3]

Contents

The law of the primate city was first proposed by the geographer Mark Jefferson in 1939. [4] He defines a primate city as being "at least twice as large as the next largest city and more than twice as significant." [5] Aside from size and population, a primate city will usually have precedence in all other aspects of its country's society such as economics, politics, culture, and education. Primate cities also serve as targets for the majority of a country or region's internal migration.

In geography, the phenomenon of excessive concentration of population and development of the main city of a country or a region (often to the detriment of other areas) is called urban primacy or urban macrocephaly. [6]

Measurement

Urban primacy can be measured as the share of a country's population that lives in the primate city. [7] Relative primacy indicates the ratio of the primate city's population to that of the second largest in a country or region. [8]

Significance

There is debate as to whether a primate city serves a parasitic or generative function. [9] The presence of a primate city in a country may indicate an imbalance in development—usually a progressive core and a lagging periphery—on which the city depends for labor and other resources. [10] However, the urban structure is not directly dependent on a country's level of economic development. [2]

Many primate cities gain an increasing share of their country's population. This can be due to a reduction in blue-collar population in the hinterlands because of mechanization and automation. Simultaneously, the number of educated employees in white-collar endeavors such as politics, finance, media, and higher education rises. These sectors are clustered predominantly in primate cities where power and wealth are concentrated.[ citation needed ]

Examples

Some global cities are considered national or regional primate cities. [5] [11] An example of a global city that is also a primate city is Istanbul in Turkey. Istanbul serves as the primate city of Turkey due to the unmatched economic, political, cultural, and educational influence that the city possesses in comparison to other Turkish cities such as the capital Ankara, İzmir, or Bursa. Mexico City, Paris, Cairo, Jakarta, and Seoul have also been described as primate cities of their respective countries. [12] However, not all regions and countries possess a primate city. The United States has never had a primate city on a national level due to the decentralized nature of the country and because the country's second-largest city, Los Angeles, is not far behind the country's largest city, New York City, in either population or GDP. The metropolitan area of New York City has over 19 million residents, while that of Los Angeles has roughly 13 million residents, as of 2022. [13]

Sub-national divisions can also have primate cities. For instance, New York City is New York State's primate city, because its population is 32 times bigger than the state's second-largest city of Buffalo. New York City has 44% of the population and 65% of the GDP of New York State. [14] The city of Anchorage is another U.S. example, with around 40% of the total population of Alaska living within the city's limits. China does not have a primate city at a national level, but several provincial capitals are disproportionately larger than other urban areas in the respective provinces. For example, Henan, Hubei, and Sichuan have provincial capitals (Zhengzhou, Wuhan, and Chengdu, respectively) that are significantly larger than the second-largest cities in those provinces, and each of those provinces has a population similar to that of a large European country. India does not have a primate city, as Delhi is not much larger than Mumbai or Kolkata in terms of population. However, many Indian states, such as Karnataka, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, do have primate cities: Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, respectively. Other Indian states, such as Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, do not have any primate cities. [15]

Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, has been called "the most primate city on Earth": in 2000 it was 40 times larger than the second-largest city of that time, Nakhon Ratchasima. [16] As of 2022, Bangkok is nearly nine times larger than Thailand's current second-largest city of Chiang Mai, which has been growing in population and has also had its boundaries expanded to reflect that growth. [17] [18] Taking the concept from his examination of the primate city during the 2010 Thai political protests and applying it to the role that primate cities play if they are national capitals, researcher Jack Fong noted that when primate cities like Bangkok function as national capitals, they are inherently vulnerable to insurrection by the military and the dispossessed. He cites the fact that most primate cities serving as national capitals contain major headquarters for the country. Thus, logistically, it is rather "efficient" to target a national capital that is also a primate city; most of the governing power is contained in that one small area, and so are most of the people. [19]

The metropolitan area of the city of Moscow, the capital of Russia, is 2.3 times the size of the metropolitan area of the next largest city, Saint Petersburg, [20] [21] and plays a unique and uncontested role of the cultural and political center of the country. [22] It can therefore be considered a primate city.

Primate cities need not be capital cities: governments may establish a new capital city in an attempt to challenge the primacy of the largest city or provide more balanced growth. For example, in Tanzania, Dar es Salaam is still the primate city even though the capital was moved to Dodoma, a new city built to a plan, in 1996. A similar process (though without building a planned city) occurred when the existing city of Wellington was chosen as New Zealand's capital in 1865; Auckland, the capital before the relocation, commanded (and still commands) a greater share of the population and economy.

List

Africa

CountryPrimatePopulationSecond largestPopulationRelative primacy
Flag of Ethiopia.svg  Ethiopia Addis Ababa 3,352,000 Adama 342,9409.8
Flag of Algeria.svg  Algeria Algiers 7,896,923 Oran 1,560,3295.1
Flag of Madagascar.svg  Madagascar Antananarivo 1,275,207 Toamasina 300,8134.2
Flag of Eritrea.svg  Eritrea Asmara 650,000 Keren 82,1987.9
Flag of Somalia.svg  Somalia Mogadishu 2,726,815 Hargeisa [23] 1,200,0002.3
Flag of Mali.svg  Mali Bamako 1,810,366 Sikasso 226,6188.0
Flag of the Central African Republic.svg  Central African Republic Bangui 622,771 Bimbo 124,1765.0
Flag of The Gambia.svg  Gambia Banjul-Serekunda area519,835 [24] Brikama 101,119 [24] 5.1
Flag of Guinea-Bissau.svg  Guinea-Bissau Bissau 492,004 Gabu 48,67010.1
Flag of Egypt.svg  Egypt Cairo [25] 22,183,000 Alexandria 6,100,0003.6
Flag of Guinea.svg  Guinea Conakry [26] 1,660,973 Nzérékoré 195,0278.5
Flag of Senegal.svg  Senegal Dakar [26] 2,646,503 Touba 753,3153.5
Flag of Tanzania.svg  Tanzania Dar es Salaam 5,383,728 Mwanza 1,104,5214.9
Flag of Djibouti.svg  Djibouti Djibouti City 475,322 Ali Sabieh 37,93912.5
Flag of Sierra Leone.svg  Sierra Leone Freetown [26] 1,500,234 Bo 233,6846.4
Flag of Uganda.svg  Uganda Kampala 1,507,080 Nansana 365,1244.1
Flag of Rwanda.svg  Rwanda Kigali 1,132,686 Butare 89,60012.6
Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.svg  Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa 17,239,463 Mbuji-Mayi 2,643,0007.3
Flag of Nigeria.svg  Nigeria Lagos [27] 16,637,000 Kano 4,490,7343.7
Flag of Gabon.svg  Gabon Libreville 703,904 Port Gentil 136,4625.2
Flag of Togo (3-2).svg  Togo Lomé 1,477,660 Sokodé 118,00012.5
Flag of Angola.svg  Angola Luanda [26] 8,069,612 Lubango 903,5648.9
Flag of Zambia.svg  Zambia Lusaka 2,238,569 Kitwe 522,0924.3
Flag of Lesotho.svg  Lesotho Maseru 330,760 Teyateyaneng 75,1154.4
Flag of Liberia 23px.svg  Liberia Monrovia 1,101,970 Ganta 41,10626.8
Flag of Kenya.svg  Kenya Nairobi 4,734,881 Mombasa 1,208,3333.9
Flag of Chad.svg  Chad N'Djamena 1,605,696 Moundou 137,92911.6
Flag of Niger.svg  Niger Niamey 1,243,500 Zinder 235,6055.3
Flag of Mauritania.svg  Mauritania Nouakchott 958,399 Nouadhibou 118,1678.1
Flag of Sudan.svg  Sudan Omdurman-Khartoum area5,490,000 Port Sudan 489,72511.2
Flag of Burkina Faso.svg  Burkina Faso Ouagadougou 2,500,000 Bobo Dioulaso 537,7284.6
Flag of Sao Tome and Principe.svg  São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé 71,868 Santo Amaro 8,2398.7
Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia Tunis 2,643,695 Sfax 330,4408.0
Flag of Seychelles.svg  Seychelles Victoria 26,450 Anse Boileau 4,0936.5
Flag of Namibia.svg  Namibia Windhoek 325,858 Walvis Bay 62,0965.2

Asia

CountryPrimatePopulationSecond largestPopulationRelative primacy
Flag of Jordan.svg  Jordan Amman 4,425,000 Irbid 750,0005.9
Flag of Turkmenistan.svg  Turkmenistan Ashgabat 1,168,000 Türkmenabat 253,0004.6
Flag of Iraq.svg  Iraq Baghdad 8,126,755 Mosul 1,792,0004.5
Flag of Azerbaijan.svg  Azerbaijan Baku 2,934,000 Ganja 335,0008.8
Flag of Brunei.svg  Brunei Bandar Seri Begawan 280,000 Kuala Belait 70,0004.0
Flag of Thailand.svg  Thailand Bangkok [28] 16,255,900 [Note 1] Chiang Mai [29] 1,213,00013.4
Flag of Lebanon.svg  Lebanon Beirut [26] 2,781,000 Tripoli 365,0007.6
Flag of Kyrgyzstan.svg  Kyrgyzstan Bishkek [26] 1,297,000 Osh 282,0004.6
Flag of Sri Lanka.svg  Sri Lanka Colombo 5,648,000 Kandy 125,40045.0
Flag of Bangladesh.svg  Bangladesh Dhaka 22,478,116 Chittagong 5,252,8424.3
Flag of East Timor.svg  Timor-Leste Dili 235,000 Baucau 15,00015.7
Flag of Tajikistan.svg  Tajikistan Dushanbe 1,390,000 Khujand 182,0007.6
Flag of Palestine.svg  Palestine Gaza City 766,331 Hebron 308,7502.5
Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey Istanbul [30] 15,569,856 Ankara [31] 5,187,9493.0
Flag of Indonesia.svg  Indonesia Jakarta 32,594,159 Surabaya 9,958,6563.2
Flag of the Taliban.svg  Afghanistan Kabul [26] 4,834,000 Kandahar 570,0008.5
Flag of Nepal.svg  Nepal Kathmandu 3,941,000 Pokhara 523,0009.8
Flag of Malaysia 23px.svg  Malaysia Kuala Lumpur 9,085,737 George Town 2,815,2783.2
Flag of Kuwait.svg  Kuwait Kuwait City [26] 4,022,000 Al Jahra 400,00010.1
Flag of Maldives.svg  Maldives Malé 135,000 Addu City 34,0004.0
Flag of the Philippines.svg  Philippines Metro Manila 13,484,000 Metro Cebu 3,166,0004.3
Flag of Oman.svg  Oman Muscat 1,205,000 Salalah 340,0003.5
Flag of Cambodia.svg  Cambodia Phnom Penh [26] 2,177,000 Siem Reap 140,00015.6
Flag of North Korea.svg  North Korea Pyongyang 2,228,000 Hamhung 535,0004.2
Flag of South Korea.svg  South Korea Seoul 25,926,000 Busan 3,468,0007.5
Flag of Uzbekistan.svg  Uzbekistan Tashkent 3,492,000 Samarkand 1,201,0002.9
Flag of Georgia.svg  Georgia Tbilisi 1,207,000 Batumi 200,0006.0
Flag of Iran.svg  Iran Tehran 13,633,000 Mashhad 3,167,0004.3
Flag of Israel.svg  Israel Tel Aviv [32] 4,054,570 [Note 2] Jerusalem 1,075,800 [Note 3] 3.77
Flag of Bhutan.svg  Bhutan Thimphu 115,000 Phuntsholing 28,0004.1
Flag of Japan.svg  Japan Tokyo 37,274,000 Keihanshin (Osaka) 19,060,0002
Flag of Laos.svg  Laos Vientiane 1,058,000 Savannakhet 120,0008.8
Flag of Mongolia.svg  Mongolia Ulaanbaatar [26] 1,508,000 Erdenet 100,00015.1
Flag of Myanmar.svg  Myanmar Yangon [33] 7,360,703 Mandalay 1,726,8894.3
Flag of Armenia.svg  Armenia Yerevan [26] 1,403,000 Gyumri 130,00010.8

For the Philippines, figures are for Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. Manila is the national capital, which is within Metro Manila, a region. Meanwhile, Cebu City is the capital city of the province of Cebu, with Metro Cebu being its main urban center. Metro Manila is within Mega Manila, the megapolis that has a population of around 25 million.

For Malaysia, data for Kuala Lumpur includes the surrounding state of Selangor and the Federal Territory of Putrajaya; while data for George Town includes the entire State of Penang and adjoining regions of Kulim and Kuala Muda (Sungai Petani) in the neighbouring State of Kedah.

Europe

CountryPrimatePopulationSecond largestPopulationRelative primacy
Flag of Greece.svg  Greece Athens [26] [34] 3,753,783 Thessaloniki 1,084,0013.5
Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia Belgrade 1,659,440 Novi Sad 341,6254.9
Flag of Romania.svg  Romania Bucharest 2,272,163 Cluj-Napoca 411,3795.5
Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary Budapest [35] 3,303,786 Debrecen 237,88813.9
Flag of Moldova.svg  Moldova Chișinău 736,100 Tiraspol (de jure) [Note 4] 135,7005.4
Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark Copenhagen [34] [35] 2,016,285 Aarhus 330,6396.1
Flag of Ireland.svg  Ireland Dublin [26] [35] 1,904,806 Cork 399,2164.8
Flag of Finland.svg  Finland Helsinki 1,522,694 Tampere 385,6103.9
Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine Kyiv [36] 2,952,301 Kharkiv 1,421,1252.1
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom London [37] [35] 14,257,962 Birmingham 3,683,0003.9
Flag of Luxembourg.svg  Luxembourg Luxembourg 107,247 Esch-sur-Alzette 32,6003.3
Flag of Spain.svg  Spain Madrid 3,416,771 Barcelona 1,702,5472.0
Flag of Belarus.svg  Belarus Minsk 2,101,018 Gomel 526,8724.0
Flag of Norway.svg  Norway Oslo [34] 1,546,706 Bergen 414,8632.5
Flag of France.svg  France Paris [34] [38] [37] [35] 12,405,426 Lyon 2,237,6765.5
Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland Reykjavík 209,680 [Note 5] Akureyri 18,19111.5
Flag of Latvia.svg  Latvia Riga [26] [34] 605,273 Daugavpils 77,7797.6
Flag of North Macedonia.svg  North Macedonia Skopje 506,926 [Note 6] Bitola 105,6444.8
Flag of Bulgaria.svg  Bulgaria Sofia 1,681,666 Plovdiv 544,6283.1
Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden Stockholm [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] 2,415,139 [Note 7] Gothenburg 1,080,9802.2
Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia Tallinn 437,619 Tartu 95,0094.6
Flag of Albania.svg  Albania Tirana 800,986 Durrës 201,1104.0
Flag of Austria.svg  Austria Vienna [26] [38] [35] 2,600,000 Graz 302,6608.6
Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia Zagreb 1,113,111 Split 349,3143.2
Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic Prague 2,709,418 Brno 696,4133.9

In Germany, Munich (city proper population ca 1.5 million, with surrounding Landkreise ~3 million) is the primate city of the state of Bavaria, having nearly three times the population than the state's second largest, Nuremberg (ca 500,000 people, metro area ~1.35 million). Likewise, in Hesse, Frankfurt (~750,000 people) is nearly three times larger than the state's second largest, Wiesbaden (~275,000) and they are both part of the Rhine-Main metropolitan area, the largest city outside of the area, Kassel, has a population of ca. 200,000 people. [44]

In Italy, primate cities exist at regional level: capital Rome (~2.7 million) alone has nearly half of the population of the Lazio region and is about 21 times larger than the second largest city Latina, and nearly three quarters of the region's population live in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. In Lombardy, Milan at ~1.35 million is seven times larger than second largest Brescia (ca 200,000); in Piedmont, Turin has eight-nine times the population of Novara and Alessandria; in Campania, Naples has 7 times the population of second-largest Salerno and in Liguria, Genoa at ~550,000 has six times the population of second largest La Spezia and the Metropolitan City of Genoa has three times the population of Province of Savona. [45]

There are many more regional primate cities in Europe. If excluding national capitals, examples include Gothenburg in Västra Götaland, Sweden, Bergen in Vestland and Trondheim, Trøndelag in Norway, Tampere in Pirkanmaa, Finland and Aarhus in Midtjylland, Denmark.

In Portugal, the Lisbon Metropolitan Area has around 2.8 million people while the Porto Metropolitan Area, the second biggest and other only official metropolitan area, has around 1.7 million people. These two metropolitan areas have around 40% the country's population and are multiple times larger than the third-biggest city, Braga.

North and Central America

CountryPrimatePopulationSecond largestPopulationRelative primacy
Flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis.svg  Saint Kitts and Nevis Basseterre 13,000 Sandy Point Town 3,1404.1
Flag of Barbados.svg  Barbados Bridgetown 110,000 Oistins 3,00036.7
Flag of Saint Lucia.svg  Saint Lucia Castries 70,000 Gros Islet 22,6473.1
Flag of the Dominican Republic.svg  Dominican Republic Santo Domingo 2,908,607 Santiago de los Caballeros 553,0915.3
Flag of Guatemala.svg  Guatemala Guatemala City [34] [35] 2,749,161 Quetzaltenango 792,5303.5
Flag of Cuba.svg  Cuba Havana 2,106,146 Santiago de Cuba 433,0994.9
Flag of Jamaica.svg  Jamaica Kingston 584,627 Portmore 182,1533.2
Flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.svg  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Kingstown 16,500 Georgetown 1,7009.7
Flag of Nicaragua.svg  Nicaragua Managua [34] 1,401,687 León 206,26412.4
Flag of Mexico.svg  Mexico Mexico City [34] [37] [35] 20,400,000 Monterrey 5,370,4664.1
Flag of the Bahamas.svg  Bahamas Nassau 274,400 Freeport 26,91410.2
Flag of Panama.svg  Panama Panama City [26] 880,691 La Chorrera 118,5217.4
Flag of Haiti.svg  Haiti Port-au-Prince [26] 2,618,894 Cap-Haïtien 274,4049.5
Flag of Dominica.svg  Dominica Roseau 16,582 Portsmouth 2,9775.6
Flag of Costa Rica.svg  Costa Rica San José [26] [34] [35] 2,158,898 Puerto Limón 58,52236.9
Flag of El Salvador.svg  El Salvador San Salvador [34] [35] 2,406,709 Santa Ana 374,83010.0
Flag of Grenada.svg  Grenada St. George's 33,734 Grenville 2,40014.1
Flag of Antigua and Barbuda.svg  Antigua and Barbuda St. John's 81,799 Liberta 3,30124.8

Although Belize does not have a primate city, Belize City is more than twice the size of San Ignacio, the country's second-largest city and urban area. Belize City is also the cultural and economic centre of Belize. The country's capital is Belmopan, the third-largest city in Belize.

In the United States, many primate cities exist at the state level. In California, the population of Los Angeles (~4 million) is nearly three times that of the second-largest city in the state, San Diego. Likewise, in Illinois, Chicago has 15 times the population of the state's second-largest city, Aurora, which itself is a suburb of Chicago, and 18 times the population of Rockford, the state's fifth-largest city and the largest outside of the Chicago metropolitan area, which comprises nearly two-thirds of the state's population. In New York, New York City, with a 2022 population of about 8.3 million, is more than 30 times larger than the state's second-largest city of Buffalo. Erie County, where Buffalo is located, is the eighth-largest county in the state and the largest outside of the New York metropolitan area, with around 950,000 residents; on the other hand, New York City alone contains four of the six largest counties in the state, each with at least 1.35 million residents. [46]

Canada also has several primate cities at the provincial level: Vancouver, BC; Winnipeg, MB; Toronto, ON; Montreal QC; Halifax, NS; and St. John's, NL.

Oceania

CountryPrimatePopulationSecond largestPopulationRelative primacy
Flag of Samoa.svg  Samoa Apia 36,735 Afega 1,78120.6
Flag of Tuvalu.svg  Tuvalu Funafuti 6,025 Asau 6509.3
Flag of the Solomon Islands.svg  Solomon Islands Honiara 64,609 Auki 7,7858.3
Flag of Tonga.svg  Tonga Nukuʻalofa 24,571 Neiafu (Vavaʻu) 6,0004.1
Flag of Papua New Guinea.svg  Papua New Guinea Port Moresby 410,954 Lae 76,2555.4
Flag of Fiji.svg  Fiji Suva 175,399 Lautoka 52,2203.4
Flag of Kiribati.svg  Kiribati South Tarawa 50,182 Abaiang 5,5029.1
Flag of New Zealand.svg New Zealand Auckland 1,715,600 Christchurch 381,5004.5

Australia does not have a primate city, but at the state level, each of the capital cities of the states and territories act as the primate city of that state or territory.

South America

CountryPrimatePopulationSecond largestPopulationRelative primacy
Flag of Colombia.svg  Colombia Bogotá 10,700,000 Medellín 3,591,9633.0
Flag of Paraguay.svg  Paraguay Gran Asunción [26] 2,698,401 Ciudad del Este 293,8179.2
Flag of Argentina.svg  Argentina Buenos Aires [37] [35] 12,741,364 Córdoba 1,528,0008.3
Flag of Guyana.svg  Guyana Georgetown 118,363 Linden 29,2984.0
Flag of Peru.svg  Peru Lima [35] 9,752,000 Arequipa 1,034,7369.4
Flag of Uruguay.svg  Uruguay Montevideo [26] [35] 1,947,604 Salto 104,02818.7
Flag of Suriname.svg  Suriname Paramaribo 240,924 Lelydorp 19,91012.1
Flag of Chile.svg  Chile Santiago [26] 6,685,685 Valparaíso 1,036,1276.5

Partially recognized states

This list only includes cities that the breakaway state controls.

CountryPrimatePopulationSecond largestPopulationRelative primacy
Flag of South Ossetia.svg  South Ossetia Tskhinvali 32,180 Kvaisa 2,26414.2
Flag of Transnistria (state).svg  Transnistria Tiraspol 133,807 Rîbnița 47,9492.8
Flag of the Republic of Abkhazia.svg  Abkhazia Sukhumi 65,439 Gudauta 8,5147.8

See also

Notes

  1. based on Bangkok Metropolitan Region
  2. based on Tel Aviv metropolitan area
  3. based on Greater Jerusalem. This figure includes both West and East Jerusalem, and other localities of the Israeli Jerusalem District, but does not include adjacent localities in the West Bank, be they Israeli settlements such as Ma'ale Adumim or Palestinian localities such as Ramallah and Bethlehem.
  4. Tiraspol is controlled and claimed by the unrecognised Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, the largest city and capital within the PMR (Transnistria). Otherwise, the second largest city controlled by Moldova, and the third largest within its recognised borders is Bălți, with a population of 102,457. The de facto relative primacy would therefore be 7.18.
  5. based on Capital Region (Iceland)
  6. based on North Macedonia#Cities
  7. based on Stockholm metro area

Related Research Articles

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References

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