How many cities are there in the US?

Answer 1

It would depend on the definition of a "city" as opposed to an unincorporated suburb or county location. In 2002, there were 19,000 municipal governments throughout the US, but as many as 30,000 incorporated cities.

There are over 43,000 places with unique zip codes, and probably no "cities" without their own zip codes. Many large cities have 2 or more zip codes. A guess would be around 20,000 to 25,000 including larger towns and such.

Apparently as of 2006 there were 19,475 incorporated areas of 10,000 residents or more. However, many other municipalities are "officially" designated cities by state laws, with far fewer residents required in some states than others.