Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think of anywhere with less than 10,000 people as either a village or small town, with between 10,000 and 50,000 as a large town, with between 50,000 and 150,000 a very large town or small city, with 150,000 to 300,000 as a medium sized city, and anything with above 300,000 as a large city.
(all figures including any micro- or metropolitan area)
0 - 4999: very small town
5000 - 19,999: small town
20,000 - 49,999: mid-sized town
50,000 - 99,999: large town
100,000 - 299,999: very small city
300,000 - 499,999: small city
500,000 - 999,999: small mid-sized city
1,000,000 - 1,999,999: large mid-sized city
2,000,000 - 4,999,999: large city
5,000,000 - 7,999,999: very large city
8,000,000+: extremely large city
There are many factors besides population, but to give a rough estimate:
0 to 5,000 - Very small town.
5,000 - 50,000 - Fairly small town.
50,000 - 200,000 - Large town.
200,000 - 500,000 - Small city.
500,000 - 1,000,000 - Medium city.
1,000,000 - 5,000,000 - Big city.
5,000,000+ - Major city.
These are based on the principal city/cities and their metro areas, as there are many smaller city-burbs in many metro areas. (DC, San Fran, LA, Boston, NYC, etc.)
Population breakdown of types of towns or settlements:
0 - Ghost Town
1 - Possible Unabomber-type or grizzled prospector living alone in cabin
2-5 - Lonesome Town
6-10 - Small House Party
10-25 - The Shire
25-50 - Hamlet
50 - 100 - Village
100 -250 - Smurf Village
250 - 1,000 - John Cougar Mellencamp's "Small Town"
1,000 - 50,000 - Town
50,000 - 100,000 - Possible Minor League Hockey Market
100,000 - 20 million - City
20 million+ - Slumdog Millionaire
Location: In that state that's next to that other state which is below that other state next to the water
155 posts, read 417,016 times
Reputation: 141
Everyone has given great answers and made great points. I definitely agree that there are far more factors that come into play than simply population alone. I just kind of forgot that when I started this thread lol. I've found that for one thing tall buildings and size (land area) of a city can also make a huge difference especially with large cities whose populations have declined over the years. And likewise cities that are huge but may have a lot of undeveloped land and/or have grown rapidly may not seem very big depending on the area, what's there, what's not as well as many many other factors. I find this very fascinating though. I have family in really small towns and they used to act like they were in a huge traffic congested city when they were in a Dayton,Ohio suburb with less than 40,000 people and a land area of approximately 22.27 square miles according to Wikipedia! It's just funny and interesting how two people can look at the same thing but see something different. Some of my relatives get overwhelmed in cities like like Huber Heights while other people could go to Dayton or Cincy and see them as small towns (or at least SMALLER towns).
For me personally it would be:
less than 2000 is a small town, greater than 1 million in the metro area is large city.
More than 4 million metro is a true big city.
0-50,000 village or rural city
50,000-200,000 small town
200,000- 1 Million midside city
1 million+ big city
I also judge by peak populations since quite a few cities, mostly the Rust Belt cities, are a lot smaller in population though they might just as large in spread and certain building sizes as cities of non-shrinking cities similar size.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
