Primate city

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A primate city is a major city that works as the financial, political, and population centre 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 London, Paris, and Tokyo. Other major primate cities include Seoul, Mexico City,Vienna, Buenos Aires, Cairo, 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; Australia, whose largest city is Sydney but whose political centre is Canberra; and the United States, whose financial centre is located in New York City, whose political centre in Washington, D.C., and whose cultural centres are widely dispersed, though the conurbation BosWash may act in many ways as a kind of primate city, fulfilling many functions fulfilled in other countries by a single city. Germany's political center is Berlin, though its financial center is Frankfurt and cultural center split between Berlin, Munich, and smaller cities. Additionally, Mumbai, New York, São Paulo, and Sydney have close competitors as their countries' largest cities (Delhi, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, and Melbourne).

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 (and the other state capitals: in no mainland Australian state does any city begin to rival the capital).

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