Primate city

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: a king effect, visible as an outlier on an otherwise linear graph, when the rest of the data fit a power law or stretched exponential function.[3]

Tallinn, the primate city of Estonia—it is five times larger than the country's second-largest settlement.

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

Not all countries have primate cities. In those that do, there is debate as to whether the 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.

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 extremely 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 it has 32 times more people 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 a number of 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, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, do have primate cities: Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, and Mumbai, respectively. Other Indian states, such as Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, do not have any primate cities.

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.[15] 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.[16][17] 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.[18]

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,[19][20] and plays a unique and uncontested role of the cultural and political center of the country.[21] It can therefore be considered a primate city.

Primate cities need not be capital cities: governments may attempt to establish a new planned capital city to challenge the primacy of the largest city and provide more balanced growth, for example in Tanzania, Dar es Salaam can still be considered a primate city although the capital was moved to Dodoma in 1996. A non-capital primate city may also emerge organically: for example, the existing city of Wellington was chosen to be New Zealand's capital in 1865, although Auckland commands a greater share of the population and economy.

List

Africa
Country Primate city/urban area Population Second largest city/urban area Population Relative primacy
 Ethiopia Addis Ababa3,352,000 Adama 342,940 9.8
 Algeria Algiers7,896,923 Oran 1,560,329 5.1
 Madagascar Antananarivo1,275,207 Toamasina 300,813 4.2
 Eritrea Asmara650,000 Keren 82,198 7.9
 Mali Bamako1,810,366 Sikasso 226,618 8.0
 Central African Republic Bangui622,771 Bimbo 124,176 5.0
 Gambia Banjul-Serekunda area519,835[22] Brikama 101,119[22] 5.1
 Guinea-Bissau Bissau492,004 Gabu 48,670 10.1
 Egypt Cairo[23]9,539,673 Alexandria 5,200,000 1.8
 Guinea Conakry[24]1,660,973 Nzérékoré 195,027 8.5
 Senegal Dakar[24]2,646,503 Touba 753,315 3.5
 Djibouti Djibouti City475,322 Ali Sabieh 37,939 12.5
 Sierra Leone Freetown[24]1,500,234 Bo 233,684 6.4
 Uganda Kampala1,507,080 Nansana 365,124 4.1
 Rwanda Kigali1,132,686 Butare 89,600 12.6
 Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa17,239,463 Mbuji-Mayi 2,643,000 7.3
 Gabon Libreville703,904 Port Gentil 136,462 5.2
 Togo Lomé1,477,660 Sokodé 118,000 12.5
 Angola Luanda[24]8,069,612 Lubango 903,564 8.9
 Zambia Lusaka2,238,569 Kitwe 522,092 4.3
 Lesotho Maseru330,760 Teyateyaneng 75,115 4.4
 Liberia Monrovia1,101,970 Ganta 41,106 26.8
 Kenya Nairobi4,734,881 Mombasa 1,208,333 3.91
 Chad N'Djamena1,605,696 Moundou 137,929 11.6
 Niger Niamey1,243,500 Zinder 235,605 5.3
 Mauritania Nouakchott958,399 Nouadhibou 118,167 8.1
 Sudan Omdurman-Khartoum area5,490,000 Port Sudan 489,725 11.2
 Burkina Faso Ouagadougou2,500,000 Bobo Dioulaso 537,728 4.6
 São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé71,868 Santo Amaro 8,239 8.7
 Tunisia Tunis2,643,695 Sfax 330,440 8.0
 Seychelles Victoria26,450 Anse Boileau 4,093 6.5
 Namibia Windhoek325,858 Walvis Bay 62,096 5.2

Asia
Country Primate city/urban area Population Second largest city/urban area Population Relative primacy
 Jordan Amman4,425,000Irbid750,000 5.9
 Turkmenistan Ashgabat1,168,000Türkmenabat253,000 4.6
 Azerbaijan Baku2,934,000Ganja335,000 8.8
 Brunei Bandar Seri Begawan280,000Kuala Belait70,000 4.0
 Thailand Bangkok[25][26]10,539,000Chiang Mai[16][17]1,197,931 8.8
 Lebanon Beirut[24]2,781,000Tripoli365,000 7.6
 Kyrgyzstan Bishkek[24]1,297,000Osh282,000 4.6
 Bangladesh Dhaka22,478,116Chittagong5,252,842 4.3
 Timor-Leste Dili235,000Baucau15,000 15.7
 Tajikistan Dushanbe1,390,000Khujand182,000 7.6
 Palestine Gaza City766,331Hebron308,750 2.5
 Indonesia Jakarta10,562,088Surabaya2,817,314 3.7
 Afghanistan Kabul[24]4,834,000Kandahar570,000 8.5
   Nepal Kathmandu3,941,000Pokhara523,000 9.8
 Malaysia Kuala Lumpur7,564,000George Town2,412,000 3.1
 Kuwait Kuwait City[24]4,022,000Al Jahra400,000 10.1
 Maldives Malé135,000Addu City34,000 4.0
 Philippines Metro Manila12,877,253 Metro Cebu2,849,213 4.5
 Oman Muscat1,205,000Salalah340,000 3.5
 Cambodia Phnom Penh[24]2,177,000Siem Reap140,000 15.6
 North Korea Pyongyang2,228,000Hamhung535,000 4.2
 South Korea Seoul9,976,000Busan3,468,000 2.9
 Uzbekistan Tashkent3,492,000Samarkand1,201,000 2.9
 Georgia Tbilisi1,207,000Batumi200,000 6.0
 Bhutan Thimphu115,000Phuntsholing28,000 4.1
 Iran Tehran13,633,000Mashhad3,167,000 4.3
 Iraq Baghdad8,126,755Basra1,326,564 6.1
 Japan Tokyo37,274,000Osaka19,060,000 2
 Laos Vientiane1,058,000Savannakhet120,000 8.8
 Mongolia Ulaanbaatar[24]1,508,000Erdenet100,000 15.1
 Myanmar Yangon[27]7,360,703Mandalay1,726,889 4.3
 Armenia Yerevan[24]1,403,000Gyumri130,000 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 city/urban area Population Second largest city/urban area Population Relative primacy
 Greece Athens[24][23]3,753,783Thessaloniki1,084,001 3.5
 Serbia Belgrade1,659,440Novi Sad341,625 4.9
 Romania Bucharest2,272,163Cluj-Napoca411,379 5.5
 Hungary Budapest[28]3,303,786Debrecen237,888 13.9
 Moldova Chișinău736,100Tiraspol (de jure)[Note 1]135,700 5.4
 Denmark Copenhagen[23][28]2,016,285Aarhus330,639 6.1
 Ireland Dublin[24][28]1,904,806Cork399,216 4.8
 Finland Helsinki1,522,694Tampere385,610 3.9
 United Kingdom London[26][28]14,257,962Birmingham3,683,000 3.9
 Luxembourg Luxembourg107,247Esch-sur-Alzette32,600 3.3
 Belarus Minsk2,101,018Gomel526,872 4.0
 Norway Oslo[23]709,037Bergen288,133 2.5
 France Paris[23][25][26][28]12,405,426 Lyon2,237,676 5.5
 Iceland Reykjavík209,680[Note 2]Akureyri18,191 11.5
 Latvia Riga[24][23]627,487Daugavpils82,046 7.6
 North Macedonia Skopje506,926[Note 3]Bitola105,644 4.8
 Bulgaria Sofia1,681,666Plovdiv544,628 3.1
 Estonia Tallinn437,619Tartu95,009 4.6
 Albania Tirana800,986Durrës201,110 4.0
 Austria Vienna[24][25][28]2,600,000Graz652,654 4.0
 Croatia Zagreb1,113,111Split349,314 3.2
 Czech Republic Prague2,709,418Brno696,413 3.9
 Sweden Stockholm2,440,027Gothenburg1,058,278 2.3

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.[29]

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.[30]

North and Central America
Country Primate city/urban area Population Second largest city/urban area Population Relative primacy
 Saint Kitts and Nevis Basseterre13,000Sandy Point Town3,140 4.1
 Barbados Bridgetown110,000Oistins3,000 36.7
 Saint Lucia Castries70,000Gros Islet22,647 3.1
 Dominican Republic Santo Domingo2,908,607Santiago de los Caballeros553,091 5.3
 Guatemala Guatemala City[23][28]2,749,161Quetzaltenango792,530 3.5
 Cuba Havana2,106,146Santiago de Cuba433,099 4.9
 Jamaica Kingston584,627Portmore182,153 3.2
 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Kingstown16,500Georgetown1,700 9.7
 Nicaragua Managua[23]1,401,687León206,264 12.4
 Mexico Mexico City[23][26][28]20,400,000Monterrey5,370,466 4.1
 Bahamas Nassau274,400Freeport26,914 10.2
 Panama Panama City[24]880,691La Chorrera118,521 7.4
 Haiti Port-au-Prince[24]2,618,894Cap-Haïtien274,404 9.5
 Dominica Roseau16,582Portsmouth2,977 5.6
 Costa Rica San José[24][23][28]2,158,898Puerto Limón58,522 36.9
 El Salvador San Salvador[23][28]2,406,709Santa Ana374,830 10.0
 Grenada St. George's33,734Grenville2,400 14.1
 Antigua and Barbuda St. John's81,799Liberta3,301 24.8

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 1.3 million residents.[31]

Oceania
Country Primate city/urban area Population Second largest city/urban area Population Relative primacy
 Samoa Apia 36,735 Afega 1,781 20.6
 Tuvalu Funafuti6,025Asau650 9.3
 Solomon Islands Honiara64,609Auki7,785 8.3
 Tonga Nukuʻalofa24,571Neiafu (Vavaʻu)6,000 4.1
 Papua New Guinea Port Moresby410,954Lae76,255 5.4
 Fiji Suva175,399Lautoka52,220 3.4
 Kiribati South Tarawa50,182Abaiang5,502 9.1
New Zealand 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 city/urban area Population Second largest city/urban area Population Relative primacy
 Colombia Bogotá10,700,000Medellín3,591,963 3.0
 Paraguay Gran Asunción[24]2,698,401Ciudad del Este293,817 9.2
 Argentina Buenos Aires[26][28]12,741,364Córdoba1,528,000 8.3
 Guyana Georgetown118,363Linden29,298 4.0
 Peru Lima[28]9,752,000Arequipa1,034,736 9.4
 Uruguay Montevideo[24][28]1,947,604Salto104,028 18.7
 Suriname Paramaribo240,924Lelydorp19,910 12.1
 Chile Santiago[24]6,685,685Valparaíso1,036,127 6.5

Partially recognized states

This list only includes cities that the breakaway state controls.

Country Primate city/urban area Population Second largest city/urban area Population Relative primacy
 South Ossetia Tskhinvali 32,180 Kvaisa 2,264 14.2
 SADR Laayoune217,732Dakhla106,277 2.0
 Transnistria Tiraspol133,807Rîbnița47,949 2.8
 Abkhazia Sukhumi65,439Gudauta8,514 7.8

See also

Notes
  1. 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.
  2. refers to Capital Region (Iceland)
  3. based on North Macedonia#Cities

References
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    From Old French or French primat, from a noun use of Latin primat-, from primus
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  3. "GaWC Research Bulletin 186".
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  6. Kotlyakov, Vladimir; Komarova, Anna (2007), Elsevier's Dictionary of Geography: in English, Russian, French, Spanish and German (1st ed.), North Holland, p. 776
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  8. Jefferson, Mark (1939). "The Law of the Primate City". Geographical Review. 29 (2): 226–232. doi:10.2307/209944. ISSN 0016-7428. 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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