Primate city
A primate city
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
Examples
Some
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 almost four 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 had been the capital, and commanded a greater share of the population and economy.
List
Africa
Country | Primate | Population | Second largest | Population | Relative primacy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ethiopia | Addis Ababa | 3,352,000 | Adama | 342,940 | 9.8 |
Algeria | Algiers | 7,896,923 | Oran | 1,560,329 | 5.1 |
Madagascar | Antananarivo | 1,275,207 | Toamasina | 300,813 | 4.2 |
Eritrea | Asmara | 650,000 | Keren | 82,198 | 7.9 |
Mali | Bamako | 1,810,366 | Sikasso | 226,618 | 8.0 |
Central African Republic | Bangui | 622,771 | Bimbo | 124,176 | 5.0 |
Gambia | Banjul-Serekunda area | 519,835[23] | Brikama | 101,119[23] | 5.1 |
Guinea-Bissau | Bissau | 492,004 | Gabu | 48,670 | 10.1 |
Guinea | Conakry[24] | 1,660,973 | Nzérékoré | 195,027 | 8.5 |
Senegal | Dakar[24] | 2,646,503 | Touba | 753,315 | 3.5 |
Djibouti | Djibouti City |
475,322 | Ali Sabieh | 37,939 | 12.5 |
Sierra Leone | Freetown[24] | 1,500,234 | Bo | 233,684 | 6.4 |
Uganda | Kampala | 1,507,080 | Nansana | 365,124 | 4.1 |
Rwanda | Kigali | 1,132,686 | Butare | 89,600 | 12.6 |
Democratic Republic of the Congo | Kinshasa | 17,239,463 | Mbuji-Mayi | 2,643,000 | 7.3 |
Gabon | Libreville | 703,904 | Port Gentil | 136,462 | 5.2 |
Togo | Lomé | 1,477,660 | Sokodé | 118,000 | 12.5 |
Angola | Luanda[24] | 8,069,612 | Lubango | 903,564 | 8.9 |
Zambia | Lusaka | 2,238,569 | Kitwe | 522,092 | 4.3 |
Lesotho | Maseru | 330,760 | Teyateyaneng | 75,115 | 4.4 |
Liberia | Monrovia | 1,101,970 | Ganta | 41,106 | 26.8 |
Kenya | Nairobi | 4,734,881 | Mombasa | 1,208,333 | 3.91 |
Chad | N'Djamena | 1,605,696 | Moundou | 137,929 | 11.6 |
Niger | Niamey | 1,243,500 | Zinder | 235,605 | 5.3 |
Mauritania | Nouakchott | 958,399 | Nouadhibou | 118,167 | 8.1 |
Sudan | Omdurman-Khartoum area | 5,490,000 | Port Sudan | 489,725 | 11.2 |
Burkina Faso | Ouagadougou | 2,500,000 | Bobo Dioulaso | 537,728 | 4.6 |
São Tomé and Príncipe | São Tomé | 71,868 | Santo Amaro | 8,239 | 8.7 |
Tunisia | Tunis | 2,643,695 | Sfax | 330,440 | 8.0 |
Seychelles | Victoria | 26,450 | Anse Boileau | 4,093 | 6.5 |
Namibia | Windhoek | 325,858 | Walvis Bay | 62,096 | 5.2 |
Asia
Country | Primate | Population | Second largest | Population | Relative primacy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jordan | Amman | 4,425,000 | Irbid | 750,000 | 5.9 |
Turkmenistan | Ashgabat | 1,168,000 | Türkmenabat | 253,000 | 4.6 |
Azerbaijan | Baku | 2,934,000 | Ganja | 335,000 | 8.8 |
Brunei | Bandar Seri Begawan | 280,000 | Kuala Belait | 70,000 | 4.0 |
Thailand | Bangkok[25] | 11,070,000 | Chiang Mai | 1,198,000 | 9.2 |
Lebanon | Beirut[24] | 2,781,000 | Tripoli | 365,000 | 7.6 |
Kyrgyzstan | Bishkek[24] | 1,297,000 | Osh | 282,000 | 4.6 |
Sri Lanka | Colombo | 5,648,000 | Kandy | 125,400 | 45.0 |
Bangladesh | Dhaka | 22,478,116 | Chittagong | 5,252,842 | 4.3 |
Timor-Leste | Dili | 235,000 | Baucau | 15,000 | 15.7 |
Tajikistan | Dushanbe | 1,390,000 | Khujand | 182,000 | 7.6 |
Palestine | Gaza City | 766,331 | Hebron | 308,750 | 2.5 |
Turkey | Istanbul[26] | 15,569,856 | Ankara[27] | 5,187,949 | 3.0 |
Indonesia | Jakarta | 10,562,088 | Surabaya | 2,817,314 | 3.7 |
Afghanistan | Kabul[24] | 4,834,000 | Kandahar | 570,000 | 8.5 |
Nepal | Kathmandu | 3,941,000 | Pokhara | 523,000 | 9.8 |
Malaysia | Kuala Lumpur | 9,085,737 | George Town | 2,815,278 | 3.2 |
Kuwait | Kuwait City[24] | 4,022,000 | Al Jahra | 400,000 | 10.1 |
Maldives | Malé | 135,000 | Addu City | 34,000 | 4.0 |
Philippines | Metro Manila | 12,877,253 | Metro Cebu | 2,849,213 | 4.5 |
Oman | Muscat | 1,205,000 | Salalah | 340,000 | 3.5 |
Cambodia | Phnom Penh[24] | 2,177,000 | Siem Reap | 140,000 | 15.6 |
North Korea | Pyongyang | 2,228,000 | Hamhung | 535,000 | 4.2 |
South Korea | Seoul | 9,976,000 | Busan | 3,468,000 | 2.9 |
Uzbekistan | Tashkent | 3,492,000 | Samarkand | 1,201,000 | 2.9 |
Georgia | Tbilisi | 1,207,000 | Batumi | 200,000 | 6.0 |
Bhutan | Thimphu | 115,000 | Phuntsholing | 28,000 | 4.1 |
Iran | Tehran | 13,633,000 | Mashhad | 3,167,000 | 4.3 |
Iraq | Baghdad | 8,126,755 | Mosul | 1,792,000 | 4.5 |
Japan | Tokyo | 37,274,000 | Osaka | 19,060,000 | 2 |
Laos | Vientiane | 1,058,000 | Savannakhet | 120,000 | 8.8 |
Mongolia | Ulaanbaatar[24] | 1,508,000 | Erdenet | 100,000 | 15.1 |
Myanmar | Yangon[28] | 7,360,703 | Mandalay | 1,726,889 | 4.3 |
Armenia | Yerevan[24] | 1,403,000 | Gyumri | 130,000 | 10.8 |
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.
Europe
Country | Primate | Population | Second largest | Population | Relative primacy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Greece | Athens[24][29] | 3,753,783 | Thessaloniki | 1,084,001 | 3.5 |
Serbia | Belgrade | 1,659,440 | Novi Sad | 341,625 | 4.9 |
Romania | Bucharest | 2,272,163 | Cluj-Napoca | 411,379 | 5.5 |
Hungary | Budapest[30] | 3,303,786 | Debrecen | 237,888 | 13.9 |
Moldova | Chișinău | 736,100 | Tiraspol (de jure)[Note 1] | 135,700 | 5.4 |
Denmark | Copenhagen[29][30] | 2,016,285 | Aarhus | 330,639 | 6.1 |
Ireland | Dublin[24][30] | 1,904,806 | Cork | 399,216 | 4.8 |
Finland | Helsinki | 1,522,694 | Tampere | 385,610 | 3.9 |
United Kingdom | London[31][30] | 14,257,962 | Birmingham | 3,683,000 | 3.9 |
Luxembourg | Luxembourg |
107,247 | Esch-sur-Alzette | 32,600 | 3.3 |
Belarus | Minsk | 2,101,018 | Gomel | 526,872 | 4.0 |
Norway | Oslo[29] | 1,546,706 | Bergen | 414,863 | 2.5 |
France | Paris[29][32][31][30] | 12,405,426 | Lyon | 2,237,676 | 5.5 |
Iceland | Reykjavík | 209,680[Note 2] | Akureyri | 18,191 | 11.5 |
Latvia | Riga[24][29] | 627,487 | Daugavpils | 82,046 | 7.6 |
North Macedonia | Skopje | 506,926[Note 3] | Bitola | 105,644 | 4.8 |
Bulgaria | Sofia | 1,681,666 | Plovdiv | 544,628 | 3.1 |
Estonia | Tallinn | 437,619 | Tartu | 95,009 | 4.6 |
Albania | Tirana | 800,986 | Durrës | 201,110 | 4.0 |
Austria | Vienna[24][32][30] | 2,600,000 | Graz | 302.660 | 8.6 |
Croatia | Zagreb | 1,113,111 | Split | 349,314 | 3.2 |
Czech Republic | Prague | 2,709,418 | Brno | 696,413 | 3.9 |
In Germany,
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.[34]
There are many more regional primate cities in Europe. If excluding national capitals, examples include
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 only around 1.7 million people, these 2 big metropolitan areas have around 40% the country's population and are multiple times larger than the third-biggest city, Braga.
North and Central America
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.[35]
Oceania
Country | Primate | Population | Second largest | Population | Relative primacy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Samoa | Apia | 36,735 | Afega | 1,781 | 20.6 |
Tuvalu | Funafuti | 6,025 | Asau | 650 | 9.3 |
Solomon Islands | Honiara | 64,609 | Auki | 7,785 | 8.3 |
Tonga | Nukuʻalofa | 24,571 | Neiafu (Vavaʻu) | 6,000 | 4.1 |
Papua New Guinea | Port Moresby | 410,954 | Lae | 76,255 | 5.4 |
Fiji | Suva | 175,399 | Lautoka | 52,220 | 3.4 |
Kiribati | South Tarawa | 50,182 | Abaiang | 5,502 | 9.1 |
New Zealand | Auckland | 1,715,600 | Christchurch | 381,500 | 4.5 |
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
Country | Primate | Population | Second largest | Population | Relative primacy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Colombia | Bogotá | 10,700,000 | Medellín | 3,591,963 | 3.0 |
Paraguay | Gran Asunción[24] | 2,698,401 | Ciudad del Este | 293,817 | 9.2 |
Argentina | Buenos Aires[31][30] | 12,741,364 | Córdoba | 1,528,000 | 8.3 |
Guyana | Georgetown | 118,363 | Linden | 29,298 | 4.0 |
Peru | Lima[30] | 9,752,000 | Arequipa | 1,034,736 | 9.4 |
Uruguay | Montevideo[24][30] | 1,947,604 | Salto | 104,028 | 18.7 |
Suriname | Paramaribo | 240,924 | Lelydorp | 19,910 | 12.1 |
Chile | Santiago[24] | 6,685,685 | Valparaíso | 1,036,127 | 6.5 |
Partially recognized states
This list only includes cities that the breakaway state controls.
Country | Primate | Population | Second largest | Population | Relative primacy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
South Ossetia | Tskhinvali | 32,180 | Kvaisa | 2,264 | 14.2 |
SADR | Laayoune | 217,732 | Dakhla | 106,277 | 2.0 |
Transnistria | Tiraspol | 133,807 | Rîbnița | 47,949 | 2.8 |
Abkhazia | Sukhumi | 65,439 | Gudauta | 8,514 | 7.8 |
See also
- Capital city
- Primate (disambiguation)
- Global city
- Megacity
- Metropolis
- Rank–size distribution
- Secondary city
Notes
- 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.
- ^ refers to Capital Region (Iceland)
- ^ based on North Macedonia#Cities
References
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What is available and what is utilized in all studies other than Wheaton and Shishido [67] is some measure of urban primacy—here measured as the share of the largest city in national urban population.
- JSTOR 209944.
In Denmark the less-than-a-million capital, Copenhagen, has won greater relative primacy. It is nine times as large as Denmark's second town.
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