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Geography Dictionary:

primate city

The largest city within a nation which dominates the country not solely in size—being more than twice as large as the second city, as in London and Birmingham, UK—but also in terms of influence. The development of primacy is not fully understood but some researchers have suggested that the importance of the primate city tends to decline as the economy grows and that, therefore, primacy tends to occur in less developed nations. However, the rise of the primate city may be encouraged by colonialism, as it occurs often at the major port. Capital cities of past empires tend to be over-large. See rank-size rule.

 
 
Wikipedia: primate city

A primate city is a major city that works as the financial, political, and population center of a country and is not rivaled in any of these aspects by any other city in that country. Normally, a primate city must be at least twice as populous as the second largest city in the country. The presence of a primate city in a country usually indicates an imbalance in development — usually a progressive core, and a lagging periphery, on which the primate city depends for labor and other resources.[1] Not all countries have primate cities (Germany, India, and the People's Republic of China for example), but in those that do, the rest of the country depends on it for cultural, economic, political, and major transportation needs. Among the best known examples of primate cities are alpha world cities of London and Paris. Other major primate cities include Seoul, Mexico City, Vienna, Cairo, Buenos Aires, Bangkok, Tehran, Baghdad, and Athens.

Some examples of nations without a primate city would include India, with the four main cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai; Brazil, whose capital and political centre, Brasilia, is dwarfed in size and culture by both São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro; Italy, whose political seat at Rome is balanced by its business, financial and fashion "capital" of Milan; Australia, whose largest city is Sydney, but with a number of other large cities, including the political centre, Canberra; and the United States, whose financial and cultural centres are widely dispersed throughout the country in cities such as New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles and whose political centre is located in Washington, D.C. Germany's political center is Berlin, though its financial center is Frankfurt and cultural center split between Berlin, Munich, Dresden and smaller cities. Additionally, Mumbai, São Paulo, Sydney, and Frankfurt have close competitors as their countries' largest cities (Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, Melbourne, and Munich respectively).

Some countries, such as the United States, Australia and Canada, have regional and/or provincial/state primate cities, such as Atlanta, Georgia; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Perth in Western Australia.

List of primate cities


Africa

Asia

Central America

Europe

North America

Oceania

South America

Countries without a primate city

Primate cites in subnational entities

Subnational entities without a primate city

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Brunn, Stanley et al. Cities of the World. Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2003

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Geography Dictionary. A Dictionary of Geography. Copyright © Susan Mayhew 1992, 1997, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Primate city".  Read more

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