City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a monarch, national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose.
Historically, city status was a privilege granted by royal letters of patent. Sovereigns could establish cities by decree, e.g. Helsinki, regardless of what was in the location beforehand. Also, with the establishment of federal governments, the new capital could be established from scratch, e.g. Brasília, without going through organic growth from a village to a town.
Coat of arms of the City of Westminster, a part of London which has its own city status.
Historically, British city status was often conferred on settlements with a diocesan cathedral; in more recent times towns apply to receive city status by letters patent at times of national celebration. Similarly, city status in Italy is granted by decree of the President (and before 1946 by the King of Italy) in recognition of historical, cultural or demographic merit. In the United States city can be used for much smaller settlements.
The Government of China in 1982–1997 upgraded many counties to cities by decree, thereby increasing their city count from 250 to more than 650 during this period. Almost 15% of the counties in China became cities. The new "cities" may include large rural areas as well as urban areas. The upgrade was considered desirable by local governments because the new status provides additional powers of taxation and administration, the right to expand the size of government, and an increase in the proportion of land which could be converted from agriculture to buildings.[1][2]
^Lixing Li, "The incentive role of creating 'cities' in China"; China Economic Review 22, 2011.
^Shenggen Fan, Lixing Li, Xiaobo Zhang, "Challenges of creating cities in China: Lessons from a short-lived country-to-city upgrading policy[permanent dead link]"; Journal of Comparative Economics 40, 2012.
Citystatus is a symbolic and legal designation given by a monarch, national or subnational government. A municipality may receive citystatus because...
Citystatus in the United Kingdom is granted by the monarch of the United Kingdom to specific centres of population, which might or might not meet the...
Commons has media related to Cities in Indonesia. Citystatus List of Indonesian cities by population List of Indonesian cities by GDP Kreisfreie Stadt, a...
Ireland, the term city has somewhat differing meanings in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Historically, citystatus in the United Kingdom...
A city with special status (Ukrainian: місто зі спеціальним статусом, romanized: misto zi spetsial'nym statusom), formerly a "city of republican subordinance"...
Citystatus in Belgium is granted to a select group of municipalities by a royal decree or by an act of law. During the Middle Ages, towns had defined...
places that have been granted city status by letters patent or royal charter. There are currently a total of 76 such cities in the United Kingdom: 55 in England...
The largest cities of South Korea have an autonomous status equivalent to that of provinces. Seoul, the largest city and capital, is classified as a teukbyeolsi...
has eight cities. Edinburgh is the capital city and Glasgow is the most populous. Scottish towns were granted burghs or royal burgh status by Scottish...
complete list of cities in Ukraine. As of 1 January 2022, there are 461 cities (Ukrainian: місто, romanized: misto) in Ukraine. Citystatus is granted by...
list of cities in Belgium. Citystatus in Belgium is granted to a select group of municipalities by a royal decree or by an act of law. Citystatus in Belgium...
Newport, St Asaph and Wrexham awarded citystatus through these contests. Wrexham is the newest to hold the status, being awarded it in September 2022 as...
former cities that have lost citystatus due to LGA amalgamations or other factors. Canberra (national and territory capital city) Since 1993, only local government...
Wrexham had again missed out on citystatus as the community of St Asaph, which was previously a city, was granted citystatus. In 2021, the Wrexham council...
Other important traits of cities besides population include the capital status and relative continued occupation of the city. A city can be distinguished from...
gained citystatus alone in Japan. The Cabinet of Japan can designate cities of at least 200,000 inhabitants to have the status of core city, or designated...
Citystatus in Italy is granted by the President of Italy (or by King of Italy before 1946) to select municipalities in virtue of their historical, artistic...
was reincorporated to village status in 1959. Sandon held citystatus between 1898 and 1920. Phoenix held citystatus between 1900 and 1919. As of the...
Despite the differences in the powers accorded to each city, all cities regardless of status are given a bigger share of the Internal Revenue Allotment...
eligible for citystatus but remain incorporated as towns. Alberta has 19 cities. Beaumont is Alberta's newest city, incorporating from town status on January...
Gibraltar had been previously named a city, researchers at The National Archives confirming that Gibraltar's citystatus was still in effect, with the territory...
notion sometimes translated as "city", but having no effect on their administrative status. In this list, only the cities' and towns' names are given. For...
the industrial revolution. Borough corporations could also have the status of a city. For pre-1974 boroughs, see Municipal Corporations Act 1835, Boroughs...
populous cities in Indonesia. It excludes urban-characterized settlements such as regency seats, which does not have citystatus. Indonesia has 93 cities classified...
territory, though Israel disputes this. Four settlements have been given citystatus. Their combined population is over 210,000, representing around half...
status, administered by the United Nations. The Free City of Danzig was a historical precedent for this solution; Trieste was a contemporaneous city ruled...
A city is the highest form of all incorporated urban municipality statuses used in the Canadian Province of Alberta. Alberta cities are created when communities...
Zealand), citystatus is a special status granted by the monarch, usually by the issuing of letters patent. Between the 16th century and 1888, citystatus was...
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