Talk:Primate city

Map

The map or tables appear to be incorrect. The map does not highlight New Zealand, yet the page states that Auckland is New Zealand's primate city. Conversely, the page claims Australia does not have a primate city, although the map suggests otherwise. There is likely further errors and inconsistencies throughout. Sushidude21! (talk) 05:57, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

You seemingly did not realise that the map highlights countries WITHOUT primate cities, not those with one. CERBERUS - ii iv iii (talk) 18:51, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

Map shows the Crimean peninsula as part of Russian Federation, — Preceding unsigned comment added by 37.99.66.65 (talk) 20:52, 20 October 2025 (UTC)

Tel Aviv's inclusion

User:ChaoticVermillion and User:~2025-42612-80, Tel Aviv is explicitly called Israel's primate city by the backing source (Kipnis, B. (2004). Tel Aviv, Israel - a world city in evolution: Urban development at a deadend of the global economy. Dela, 21, 183–193.) no less than three times, excluding the abstract:

• "Tel Aviv,¹ whose 2.6 million population, accounted for 44% of Israel's total in 2000, has been Israel's primate urban agglomeration since the 1920s (Reichmann 1972). Since the late 1980s it has evolved into the hard core of Israel's post-industrial globally oriented economy, its post-modern physical ambience and its social and cultural lifestyle."
• "Two decades [after its founding in 1909] Tel Aviv surpassed Jaffa in population and economic activity to become, together with Jaffa, the 'primate city' of the Land of Israel."
• "Even after Israel's independence in 1948, and in spite of its vigorous population dispersal policy in 1949, the Tel Aviv region managed to maintains its role as the a primate core area of Israel (Lipshitz, 1996)."

It is baffling that people disagree about Tel Aviv's inclusion in this article, even though it is based on an article published in an academic journal that explicitly calls it a primate city, while examples that are based off a blind application of the "if the first city has more than twice the population of the second city, it's primate" adage and nothing else are left in. Glide08 (talk) 15:12, 24 December 2025 (UTC)

Copehagen/Aarhus

Copenhagen figures are for the metropolitan area, whereas Aarhus seems to be the urban area. The corresponding population for Aarhus seems to be closer to 850t, cf: List of urban areas in the Nordic countries ~2026-21717 (talk) 00:59, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Metro Manila

Metro Manila must be removed here. It is not a single city, but a capital region that consists of 17 municipal-level units (16 cities and 1 town, including the City of Manila which is the city itself). The entry is unsourced. What is the basis of declaring a region as a primate city? JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 07:04, 3 March 2026 (UTC)

This is true, and from looking at things, wouldn't Quezon City overtake Manila in terms of population anyway? The Philippines probably should not be on here. Ornov Ganguly TALK 14:16, 3 March 2026 (UTC)

I have now removed "Manila" entry, considering that no reliable sources (especially Philippine sources) say the Philippines has a primate city. The populations of Quezon City and Manila are not very far from each other (3 mil+ for the former vs. 1.8 mil+ for the latter). Until all 16 cities (and the town of Pateros) merge with each other, we won't have a primate city here. Of course, mergers are unpopular here, given that the local government unit system here follows decentralization principle. JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 01:45, 15 April 2026 (UTC)

NYC

NYC is more than twice the size of Los Angeles in population and GDP. NYC's population is almost the size of the next 3 USA cities combined. NYC also has a metro area of 21M, not 19M.

It seems as is someone from L.A. is not trying to have that city seem so far behind. ~2026-22895-97 (talk) 20:49, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

You're applying a single one of the multiple considerations that are taken into account together in assessing whether a city is a primary city. Largoplazo (talk) 21:44, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

There's still a lot of examples that are based off blindily applying "population of largest city is more than twice that of second largest city, therefore primate", such as Italy and Ukraine. Glide08 (talk) 16:58, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

Yes, there are a lot of problems with this article. I would trust only the listings that are sourced, and only if the source supports the designation as "primate city". The others should be researched and sourced or removed. Largoplazo (talk) 17:39, 20 April 2026 (UTC)