Primate city explained

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.

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.

Measurement

Urban primacy can be measured as the share of a country's population that lives in the primate city.[6] Relative primacy indicates the ratio of the primate city's population to that of the second largest in a country or region.[7]

Significance

There is debate as to whether a primate city serves a parasitic or generative function.[8] 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.[9] However, the urban structure is not directly dependent on a country's level of economic development.

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] [10] 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.[11] 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.[12]

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.[13] 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, 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.[14]

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 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

text-align: left;" Country text-align: left;" Primate text-align: right;" Populationtext-align: left;" Second largest text-align: right;" Populationtext-align: right;" Relative primacy
Addis Ababa3,352,000Adama342,940
Algiers7,896,923Oran1,560,3295.1
Antananarivo1,275,207Toamasina300,8134.2
Asmara650,000Keren82,1987.9
Bamako1,810,366Sikasso226,6188.0
Bangui622,771Bimbo124,1765.0
Banjul-Serekunda area 519,835[22] Brikama101,1195.1
Bissau492,004Gabu48,67010.1
Conakry[23] 1,660,973Nzérékoré195,0278.5
Dakar2,646,503Touba753,3153.5
Dar es Salaam5,383,728Mwanza1,104,5214.9
Djibouti City475,322Ali Sabieh37,93912.5
Freetown1,500,234Bo233,6846.4
Kampala1,507,080Nansana365,1244.1
Kigali1,132,686Butare89,60012.6
Kinshasa17,239,463Mbuji-Mayi2,643,0007.3
Libreville703,904Port Gentil136,4625.2
Lomé1,477,660Sokodé118,00012.5
Luanda8,069,612Lubango903,5648.9
Lusaka2,238,569Kitwe522,0924.3
Maseru330,760Teyateyaneng75,1154.4
Monrovia1,101,970Ganta41,10626.8
Nairobi4,734,881Mombasa1,208,3333.9
N'Djamena1,605,696Moundou137,92911.6
Niamey1,243,500Zinder235,6055.3
Nouakchott958,399Nouadhibou118,1678.1
Omdurman-Khartoum area 5,490,000Port Sudan489,72511.2
Ouagadougou2,500,000Bobo Dioulaso537,7284.6
São Tomé71,868Santo Amaro8,2398.7
Tunis2,643,695Sfax330,4408.0
Victoria26,450Anse Boileau4,0936.5
Windhoek325,858Walvis Bay62,0965.2

Asia

text-align: left;" Country text-align: left;" Primate text-align: right;" Populationtext-align: left;" Second largesttext-align: right;" Populationtext-align: right;" Relative primacy
4,425,000 750,0005.9
1,168,000 253,0004.6
8,126,755 1,792,0004.5
2,934,000 335,000 8.8
280,000 70,0004.0
Bangkok11,070,000 Chiang Mai1,198,0009.2
2,781,000 365,0007.6
1,297,000 282,0004.6
5,648,000 125,40045.0
22,478,116 5,252,8424.3
235,000 15,00015.7
1,390,000 182,0007.6
766,331 308,7502.5
Istanbul[24] 15,569,856 Ankara[25] 5,187,9493.0
10,562,088 2,817,3143.7
4,834,000 570,0008.5
3,941,000 523,0009.8
9,085,737 2,815,2783.2
4,022,000 400,00010.1
135,000 34,0004.0
Metro Manila12,877,253Metro Cebu2,849,2134.5
1,205,000 340,0003.5
2,177,000 140,00015.6
2,228,000 535,0004.2
9,976,000 3,468,0002.9
3,492,000 1,201,0002.9
1,207,000 200,0006.0
13,633,000 3,167,0004.3
Tel Aviv[26] 4,054,570[27] 1,075,800[28] 3.77
115,000 28,0004.1
37,274,000 19,060,0002
1,058,000 Savannakhet120,0008.8
1,508,000 100,00015.1
Yangon[29] 7,360,703 1,726,8894.3
1,403,000 130,00010.8

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

text-align: left;" Country text-align: left;" Primate text-align: right;" Populationtext-align: left;" Second largest text-align: right;" Populationtext-align: right;" Relative primacy
Athens[30] 3,753,783 1,084,0013.5
1,659,440 341,625 4.9
2,272,163 411,3795.5
3,303,786 237,88813.9
736,100 Tiraspol (de jure)[31] 135,7005.4
2,016,285 330,6396.1
1,904,806 399,2164.8
1,522,694 385,6103.9
London[32] 14,257,962 3,683,0003.9
107,247 32,6003.3
2,101,018 526,8724.0
1,546,706 414,863 2.5
Paris[33] 12,405,426Lyon2,237,6765.5
209,680[34] 18,19111.5
605,273 77,7797.6
506,926[35] 105,6444.8
1,681,666 544,6283.1
437,619 95,0094.6
800,986 201,1104.0
2,600,000 302.6608.6
1,113,111 349,3143.2
2,709,418 696,4133.9
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.[36]

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.[37]

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 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

text-align: left;" Country text-align: left;" Primatetext-align: right;" Populationtext-align: left;" Second largest text-align: right;" Populationtext-align: right;" Relative primacy
13,000 3,1404.1
Bridgetown110,000 3,00036.7
Castries70,000 Gros Islet22,6473.1
Santo Domingo2,908,607 Santiago de los Caballeros553,0915.3
Guatemala City[38] 2,749,161 Quetzaltenango792,5303.5
Havana2,106,146 Santiago de Cuba433,0994.9
Kingston584,627 Portmore182,1533.2
Kingstown16,500 Georgetown1,7009.7
Managua1,401,687 León206,26412.4
Mexico City20,400,000 Monterrey5,370,4664.1
Nassau274,400 Freeport26,91410.2
Panama City880,691 La Chorrera118,5217.4
Port-au-Prince2,618,894 Cap-Haïtien274,4049.5
Roseau16,582 Portsmouth2,9775.6
San José2,158,898 Puerto Limón58,52236.9
San Salvador2,406,709 Santa Ana374,83010.0
St. George's33,734 Grenville2,40014.1
St. John's81,799 Liberta3,30124.8
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.[39]

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

text-align: left;" Country text-align: left;" Primate text-align: right;" Populationtext-align: left;" Second largesttext-align: right;" Populationtext-align: right;" Relative primacy
Apia36,735Afega1,78120.6
6,025 6509.3
64,609 7,7858.3
24,571 6,0004.1
410,954 76,2555.4
175,399 52,2203.4
50,182 5,5029.1
New ZealandAuckland1,715,600Christchurch381,5004.5

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

text-align: left;" Country text-align: left;" Primatetext-align: right;" Populationtext-align: left;" Second largesttext-align: right;" Populationtext-align: right;" Relative primacy
10,700,000 3,591,9633.0
2,698,401 293,8179.2
12,741,364 1,528,0008.3
118,363 29,2984.0
9,752,000 1,034,7369.4
1,947,604 104,02818.7
240,924 19,91012.1
6,685,685 1,036,1276.5

Partially recognized states

This list only includes cities that the breakaway state controls.

text-align: left;" Country text-align: left;" Primatetext-align: right;" Populationtext-align: left;" Second largesttext-align: right;" Populationtext-align: right;" Relative primacy
Tskhinvali32,180Kvaisa2,26414.2
133,807 47,9492.8
65,439 8,5147.8

See also

Notes and References

  1. [Latin]
  2. Book: Goodall, B. . 1987 . The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography . London . Penguin.
  3. Web site: GaWC Research Bulletin 186.
  4. Web site: The Law of the Primate City and the Rank-Size Rule, by Matt Rosenberg.
  5. Mark . Jefferson . The Law of the Primate City . Geographical Review . 29 . April 1939. 29 . 226–232 . 10.2307/209944 . 209944 .
  6. Davis. James C.. Henderson. J.Vernon. 1 October 2003. Evidence on the political economy of the urbanization process. Journal of Urban Economics. en. 53. 1. 98–125. 10.1016/S0094-1190(02)00504-1. 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..
  7. Jefferson. Mark. 1939. The Law of the Primate City. Geographical Review. 29. 2. 226–232. 10.2307/209944. 209944. 0016-7428. 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..
  8. London. Bruce. October 1977. Is the Primate City Parasitic? The Regional Implications of National Decision Making in Thailand. The Journal of Developing Areas. 12. 49–68. JSTOR.
  9. Brunn, Stanley, et al. Cities of the World. Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2003
  10. Book: Taşan-Kok, Tuna . Mexico, Istanbul and Warsaw: Institutional and spatial change . 41 . Eburon Uitgeverij . 2004 . 978-905972041-1 . 2013-05-21.
  11. Book: Pacione, Michael . Urban Geography: A Global Perspective . registration . Routledge . Abingdon . 2005 . 2nd . 83.
  12. Web site: 2020 Population and Housing State Data . United States Census Bureau, Population Division . May 18, 2023 . October 9, 2023 . June 29, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220629175327/https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-total-metro-and-micro-statistical-areas.html#v2022 . live .
  13. Web site: Revised Delineations of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Micropolitan Statistical Areas, and Combined Statistical Areas, and Guidance on Uses of the Delineations of These Areas . 106. Executive Office of the President - Office of Management and Budget. July 29, 2014.
  14. Web site: A-04 : Towns and urban agglomerations classified by population size class in 2011 with variation between 1901 and 2011 - Class I (population of 100,000 and above) . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230305025821/https://censusindia.gov.in/nada/index.php/catalog/42876/download/46544/CLASS_I.xlsx . 2023-03-05 . 2024-01-26 . Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India.
  15. Book: Baker, Chris . A History of Thailand . Pasuk Phongpaichit . Cambridge University Press . 2009 . 978-0-521-76768-2 . 2nd . Cambridge . 199.
  16. Web site: Chiang Mai, Thailand Metro Area Population 1950-2022, Data provided by the United Nations' Department of Economic and Social Affairs - Population Division . 2022-05-14 . www.macrotrends.net.
  17. Web site: Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA), Population data for the year 2022 . 2023-06-21 . th.
  18. Fong. Jack. Political Vulnerabilities of a Primate City: The May 2010 Red Shirts Uprising in Bangkok, Thailand.. Journal of Asian and African Studies. May 2012. 48. 3. 332–347. subscription . 10.1177/0021909612453981. 145515713.
  19. Web site: A 3-Hour Commute: A close look at Moscow the Megapolis. 2021-02-02. Strelka Mag. en.
  20. Web site: Severo-Zapadnyj Federal'nyj Okrug / Northwestern Russia (Russia): Regions, Republics, Major Cities & Urban Settlements - Population Statistics, Maps, Charts, Weather and Web Information. 2021-02-02. www.citypopulation.de.
  21. Argenbright. Robert. 2013-01-01. Moscow on the Rise: From Primate City to Megaregion. Geographical Review. 103. 1. 20–36. 10.1111/j.1931-0846.2013.00184.x. 155003653. 0016-7428.
  22. Web site: World Gazetteer: World Gazetteer home. https://archive.today/20130209150810/http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php. dead. 2013-02-09. 2013-02-09. archive.is. 2020-04-09.
  23. Book: World Urbanization Prospects: The 2003 Revision. 1 January 2004. United Nations Publications. 978-92-1-151396-7. 97–102.
  24. Web site: TURKEY: İstanbul City . Citypopulation.de. Turkish Statistical Institute. 2022.
  25. Web site: TURKEY: Ankara City . Citypopulation.de. Turkish Statistical Institute. 2022.
  26. https://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/rb57.html GaWC Research Bulletin 57 - Tel Aviv, Israel - A World City in Evolution: Urban Development at a Deadend of the Global Economy*
  27. based on Tel Aviv metropolitan area
  28. 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.
  29. Book: Census Report . Ministry of Immigration and Population . Naypyitaw . May 2015 . The 2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census . 2 . 31–57 .
  30. Web site: 2020-10-06. 2020-11-17. ssb.no. no.
  31. [Tiraspol]
  32. Book: Kelly Swanson. Kaplan AP Human Geography 2013-2014. 7 August 2012. Kaplan Publishing. 978-1-60978-694-6.
  33. Book: Michael Pacione . Urban Geography: A Global Perspective . Taylor & Francis . 2009 . 978-0-415-46201-3 . 79.
  34. refers to Capital Region (Iceland)
  35. based on North Macedonia#Cities
  36. Web site: Germany: States, Districts, Counties, Cities, Communes, Agglomerations, Settlements, City Quarters - Population Statistics in Maps and Charts . 2023-09-18 . www.citypopulation.de . en-us.
  37. Web site: Italy: Regions, Provinces, Cities, Communes, Localities, Boroughs - Population Statistics in Maps and Charts . 2023-09-18 . www.citypopulation.de . en-us.
  38. Book: Robert B. Kent. Latin America: Regions and People. January 2006. Guilford Press. 978-1-57230-909-8. 144–.
  39. Web site: USA: States, Counties, Cities, Places, Urban Areas & Metropolitan Areas - Population Statistics in Maps and Charts . 2023-09-18 . www.citypopulation.de . en-us.

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