Disproportionately largest city of a country or region
Tallinn, the primate city of Estonia—it is five times larger than Tartu, the country's second-largest settlement.
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]
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.
Countries without a national primate city in red.
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]
^Latin: 'prime', 'first rank'"Primate". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2008-07-21. From Old French or French primat, from a noun use of Latin primat-, from primus
^Goodall, B. (1987). The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography. London: Penguin.
^"GaWC Research Bulletin 186".
^"The Law of the Primate City and the Rank-Size Rule, by Matt Rosenberg".
^Jefferson, Mark (April 1939). "The Law of the Primate City". Geographical Review. 29 (29): 226–232. doi:10.2307/209944. JSTOR 209944.
^Kotlyakov, Vladimir; Komarova, Anna (2007), Elsevier's Dictionary of Geography: in English, Russian, French, Spanish and German (1st ed.), North Holland, p. 776
A primatecity is a city that is the largest in its country, province, state, or region, and disproportionately larger than any others in the urban hierarchy...
Primates are the members of a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and...
foreign-born populations Globalization List of cities by GDP Megalopolis Metropolis Primatecity Ranally city rating system Lenormand, Maxime; Gonçalves,...
(BPS). Jakarta is the largest city and the only megacity in Indonesia, with a population of 10.70 million. As a primatecity, Jakarta is nearly four times...
Bangkok Metropolitan Region at the 2010 census, making Bangkok an extreme primatecity, dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in both size and importance...
well as the regional center and primatecity of the Western Visayas region. According to the 2020 census, Iloilo City has a population of 457,626 people...
population was estimated at two million people as of 2009. Baku is the primatecity of Azerbaijan—it is the sole metropolis in the country, and about 25%...
countries whose capital is not their largest city List of countries with multiple capitals Primatecity Temporary capital Andreas Daum, "Capitals in Modern...
position, the city has been battled over in 115 wars and razed 44 times, being bombed five times and besieged many times. Being Serbia's primatecity, Belgrade...
kilometres (2,944 square miles) and a population of 3,303,786. It is a primatecity, constituting 33% of the population of Hungary. The history of Budapest...
The second city of the United Kingdom is an unofficial title that is both subjective and cultural. The United Kingdom has a primatecity structure where...
[ˈbwenos‿ˈaiɾes] ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the capital and primatecity of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the...
home to 2,225,911 inhabitants as of the 2022 census. As the nation's primatecity, Monrovia is the country's economic, financial and cultural center; its...
city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primatecity...
Kabul the 75th-largest city in the world and the country's primatecity. The modern-day city of Kabul is located high up in a narrow valley in the Hindu...
the country's primatecity, it serves as its cultural, industrial and financial heart and the center of its transport network. The city at its establishment...
Kazakhstan and has a population of 1,074,075, as of 2021. Bishkek is the primatecity of Kyrgyzstan—it is the sole metropolis in the country, and about 17%...
from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2010. "PrimateCity Definition and Examples". Archived from the original on 7 January 2019...
populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primatecity and...
the capital, largest city, and one of nine federal states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city and its primatecity, with about two million...
of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primatecity, Kigali is a relatively new city. It has been Rwanda's economic, cultural, and transport...
a primatecity, a city that dominates in population size and, usually, economically, have a deficit of intermediate size cities. Examples of primate cities...
European Union. Budapest is also the primatecity of Hungary and some neighbouring territories. The Capital city of Budapest was established on 17 November...
administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country, as its primatecity. It has been the capital since 1918, the fourteenth in the history of...
Global Information
