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What is needed for a city to be called a city and not a town or a village? Are there minimum regulations regarding population or land mass that distinguish a city from a town, township, village, etc?

Question #63680. Asked by thaver.
Last updated Dec 02 2017.

Related Trivia Topics: Geography  
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sue943
Answer has 1 vote
sue943
25 year member
104 replies avatar

Answer has 1 vote.
Where? It could differ from country to country. In the UK normally, but not exclusively, a city will have a cathedral. I can remember when Southampton was changed to being a city instead of a town, Southampton doesn't have a cathedral.

Oct 16 2005, 5:55 AM
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MaggieG
Answer has 1 vote
MaggieG avatar

Answer has 1 vote.
Newport had a cathedral for years before it was declared a city in 2002. I think there are some anomalies in our system.

Oct 16 2005, 7:30 AM
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TabbyTom
Answer has 8 votes
TabbyTom
23 year member
1233 replies avatar

Answer has 8 votes.
The webpage below gives details of what city status means in the UK today. Nowadays, a town becomes a city by virtue of letters patent issued by the sovereign. This usually happens after a competition, often organized to mark some “milestone” like the end of the second millennium or a royal jubilee or anniversary.

A number of towns are called cities by “prescriptive usage”, i.e. they’ve been known as cities for centuries, and so the title is recognized even if there’s no charter or letters patent.

When the Christian church established itself in Britain, it naturally set up its bishops’ sees in what were then the main towns. Many of these towns are no longer as important as they were, but because of their former pre-eminence they became cities (possibly by prescriptive usage). So there’s a widespread belief that a cathedral makes a city, but (as you can see from the webpage) this isn’t strictly true.

link http://www.dca.gov.uk/constitution/city/citygj.htm

Oct 16 2005, 7:56 AM
daddy1161992
Answer has 0 votes
daddy1161992
19 year member
105 replies

Answer has 0 votes.
Cities in both U.K. and U.S. have to be incorporated, and approved by the State, or the Crown

Oct 16 2005, 9:01 AM
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lanfranco
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lanfranco
20 year member
4170 replies avatar

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In the U.S., "city" and "town" can be used interchangeably, depending on simple local custom. The suburb (of a good-sized city) in which my mother lives is incorporated as a city itself and is always referred to as one, though its population is about 9,000. Her hometown, with a population of 12,000, is also incorporated but is described by most of its residents as a town.

An unscientific poll of persons visiting my household this morning turned up the prevailing view that a "real" U.S. city has to have a population of 50,000 or more. Anything smaller calling itself a city is suffering from delusions of grandeur.

Oct 16 2005, 9:59 AM
gmackematix
Answer has 3 votes
gmackematix
21 year member
3206 replies

Answer has 3 votes.
In summary, there is no international standard definition of city, even in the English speaking world so when reference works specifically call a place a city or town there will often be a degree of arbitrariness about it.
In the UK, a city is strictly defined as a town which has been known as a city since time immemorial or which has since been granted the right to call itself a city by a charter. The presence of a cathedral may affect the decision to confer this status but is not a necessity.
In the US, many small places have optimistically had city put in the name in the hope that they would grow into such. Interestingly, parts of cities in the US are now calling themselves "Village" to make themselves seem more amenable.
link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City

Oct 16 2005, 11:18 AM
Flynn_17
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Flynn_17
23 year member
604 replies

Answer has 0 votes.
Leeds doesn't have a cathedral, and we're the third biggest metropolitan area in the country, so it's not all about churches anymore...

Oct 16 2005, 11:44 AM
gmackematix
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gmackematix
21 year member
3206 replies

Answer has 0 votes.
For the record (once again):

UK cities without cathedrals include:
Bath, Cambridge, Hull, Lancaster, Newport, Nottingham, Plymouth, Salford, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton.

UK towns (and one village) with cathedrals that aren't cities include:
Bury St Edmunds, Chelmsford, Blackburn, Guildford and Southwell.

Clearly, I mean Anglican cathedral, as several towns without city status (like Shrewsbury near me) have Catholic cathedrals.

Oct 16 2005, 4:11 PM
Arpeggionist
Answer has 0 votes
Arpeggionist
21 year member
2173 replies

Answer has 0 votes.
In Israel, most cities are defined as such once they get a population of 20,000. This is unless the settlement in question is already defined as a kibbutz or a moshav, which have definitions of their own. I would venture a guess and say that a very small percentage of cities worldwide have cathedrals.

Oct 17 2005, 4:15 AM
stats741
Answer has 9 votes
Currently Best Answer
stats741

Answer has 9 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
This website provides those Key Facts about UK Towns and Cities which help to instill civic pride amongst their citizens. These include details of towns with the civic honours of city status and/or a lord mayoralty or those which have a university or a cathedral. Other factors which boost civic pride include having a good football team or winning the national Britain in Bloom competition, and this website will show which towns and cities have been the most successful.
link http://www.lovemytown.co.uk

Largest Towns without City Status (town, population):
1 Reading 218705
2 Northampton 215173
3 Luton 211228
4 Bolton 194189
5 Bournemouth 187503
6 Swindon 182441
7 Southend 175547
8 Middlesbrough 174700
9 Milton Keynes 171750
10 Warrington 165456
11 Huddersfield 162949
12 Slough 155298
13 Poole 154718
14 Blackpool 147663
15 Ipswich 144957
16 Birkenhead 142968
17 Telford 142723
18 Sale 134022
19 Watford 131982
20 Solihull 123187
21 High Wycombe 120256
22 Gateshead 120046
23 Colchester 119441
24 Blackburn 117963
25 Cheltenham 116447
26 Doncaster 109805
27 Rotherham 109691
28 Eastbourne 109185
29 Worthing 109120
30 Sutton Coldfield 109015
31 Rochdale 107926
32 Maidstone 107627
33 Basingstoke 107355
34 Basildon 107123
35 Crawley 106943
36 Stockport 105878
37 Woking 105367
38 Gillingham 104157
39 Wigan 103608
40 St. Helens 102885
link http://www.lovemytown.co.uk/CityStatus/CityStatusTable2.asp

List of UK towns with city status: link http://www.lovemytown.co.uk/CityStatus/CityStatusTable1.asp

Response last updated by gtho4 on Dec 02 2017.
Oct 31 2005, 9:16 AM
Arpeggionist
Answer has 0 votes
Arpeggionist
21 year member
2173 replies

Answer has 0 votes.
It varies from country to country. In Israel, a city retains its status as such usually once it reaches the population of 20,000. But there are places with more people which are not cities. And there are cities with fewer people. I don't know what the rule is, or even if there is one in all places.

Mar 19 2006, 6:49 AM
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McGruff
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McGruff
25 year member
3694 replies avatar

Answer has 0 votes.
The definition of a city will vary from state to state in the US. The Town of Sharpsburg, Maryland has a population of about 700, but it has a Mayor and Town Council and is a separate (and additional) taxing district from Washington County. There are many such towns in the county. The largest, Hagerstown, has a population of about 37,000 and is called the City of Hagerstown, and is also the county seat.

Mar 19 2006, 9:19 AM
blue_blade
Answer has 0 votes
blue_blade

Answer has 0 votes.
In the UK at least, I believe in order to be a city a settlement must have either a Cathedral or a University.

Mar 19 2006, 10:13 AM
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Baloo55th
Answer has 4 votes
Baloo55th
22 year member
4545 replies avatar

Answer has 4 votes.
Actually, no. In the UK, city status is an award by the Sovereign, and currently decided by competition. Last one was in 2000 (results announced in 2002) when Preston, Newport, Stirling, Lisburn and Newry received it.
link http://www.dca.gov.uk/constitution/city/cityhome.htm
and also follow the Results link there. it is purely a status thing and makes no real difference to anyone in practical terms.

Mar 19 2006, 12:19 PM
bloomsby
Answer has 0 votes
bloomsby
24 year member
584 replies

Answer has 0 votes.
In everyday usage there's a tendency to refer to a larger town (say a place with a population of over 100,000) as a 'city' regardless of its strict, legal status.

Mar 19 2006, 6:42 PM
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sportsherald star
Answer has 5 votes
sportsherald star
13 year member
705 replies avatar

Answer has 5 votes.
It really depends on where you are in the world: "Distinction between cities and towns

There are probably as many different ways of conceiving what a city is as there are cities. A simple definition therefore has its attractions. The simplest is that a city is a human settlement where strangers are likely to meet.

Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man, 1977, p. 39.[34]

The difference between towns and cities is differently understood in different parts of the world. Indeed, some languages other than English use a single word for both concepts. Iberian languages typically use a three-way designation (Catalan: "poble", "vila", "ciutat"; Galician: "aldea", "vila", "cidade"; Portuguese: "aldeia", "vila", "cidade"; Spanish: "pueblo", "villa", "ciudad"-respectively "village", "town", "city"); Italian: "villaggio", "paese" "città"-respectively "village", "village/town", "city/town"; but other Romance languages don't (French: "village", "ville").[citation needed]

Even within the English-speaking world there is no one standard definition of a city: the term may be used either for a town possessing city status; for an urban locality exceeding an arbitrary population size; for a town dominating other towns with particular regional economic or administrative significance. In England, city is reserved for very large settlements and smaller historic settlements with a Cathedral (e.g. Lichfield), while smaller settlements without a Cathedral are called towns, and smaller still are villages and hamlets.[citation needed] In the US city is used for much smaller settlements."
-from link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_status

Nov 30 2013, 5:40 PM
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C30
Answer has 3 votes
C30
16 year member
91 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.
link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_charter

In UK towns can be granted City status by Royal Charter, without the requisite Cathedral.
A good example of this is the University City of Cambridge.

Dec 01 2013, 3:42 AM
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