Primate and Global Cities

Podcast Transcript

For centuries, people have been transfixed by the “the big city.”

Kids growing up in small towns would dream of going to the big city where they could find opportunity and fortune.

People in the big city often looked down on those in smaller communities because they were from the big city.

Believe it or not, the idea of big cities and how they relate to the rest of a country is one that has an actual theory in geography and economics.

Learn more about Primate cities and global cities on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Cities, like people, come in all shapes and sizes. There are giant megalopolises, small, medium, and large cities, and everything down to villages and hamlets.

What we all know intuitively is that some cities are more important than others. This is true on both a global scale and on a national and regional scale.

These important cities can be seats of government, finance, industry, culture, and religion.

This difference in the relative importance of cities goes back a very long time. Going back thousands of years, ancient cities like Jericho, Ur, or Babylon were important commercial and administrative centers.

All roads famously led to Rome, which governed an entire empire.

This relationship between cities was studied by an American geographer named Mark Jefferson. He was a professor at what is now Eastern Michigan University and, perhaps more importantly, he was the chief cartographer of the American Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 after World War I.

In 1939, he developed something which he called The Law of the Primate City.

According to Jefferson, a primate city is one that is at least twice the size of the next largest city and significantly more than twice as important in terms of economic, political, and cultural influence.

Jefferson’s idea came from studying urban development patterns across various countries. He observed that in many nations, one city dominated all aspects of national life, while in others, cities were more evenly distributed in size and function.

His theory contrasted with the Rank-Size Rule, which states that the population of cities in a country follows a predictable pattern, where the second-largest city is half the size of the largest, the third-largest is one-third, and so on.

Primate cities exhibit several defining characteristics that set them apart from other urban areas within a country. One of their most notable features is urban dominance, as they act as the central hub for finance, administration, culture, and transportation. These cities hold a disproportionate share of the national population, often dwarfing the second and third-largest cities by a significant margin.

Another key characteristic of primate cities is their economic concentration. Major industries, businesses, and services tend to cluster in these urban centers, making them the driving force behind the country’s economy. This concentration of wealth and opportunities attracts a large number of people from rural areas and smaller cities, reinforcing their role as migration magnets. As a result, primate cities continue to grow at a rapid pace compared to other urban centers.

Another hallmark of primate cities is their cultural and political importance. They serve as the epicenter of national media, prestigious universities, and governmental institutions. Many of these cities house the country’s most important historical landmarks and cultural centers, making them influential both nationally and internationally.

Most countries have a primate city, but not all do.

For example, the UK, Thailand, Sweden, Egypt, Ethiopia, Argentina, France, Ireland, Mexico, Japan, and South Korea all have primate cities.

The United States, Canada, Australia, India, Brazil, and China do not.

Let’s look at the primate city in the UK, London.

London dominated the UK in almost every way. London has 22% of the entire GDP of the UK despite only having 13% of the population.

London is the seat of government for the country. It is where the primal royal residence is. It is the center of finance for the country and, as we’ll see, one of the most important financial centers in the world.

Culturally, it has places like Westminster Abbey, which is central to the history of the country, as well as the West End theater district, which, alongside Broadway, is one of the most important in the world, and the British Museum.

It is overwhelmingly the largest tourist destination in the country, and it has the largest international airports in the country.

The second largest metropolitan area in the UK is Birmingham, which has a metro population of about 2.3 million people. While London is approximately four times the size, it has a far greater impact in terms of economics and culture.

Bangkok has been dubbed the most primate city in the world due to its overwhelming dominance over the rest of Thailand in terms of population, economy, politics, and culture. Unlike other countries where multiple cities share national influence, Bangkok is vastly larger than any other Thai city, with a metropolitan population exceeding ten times that of the second-largest city, Chiang Mai.

Economically, Bangkok serves as the financial and commercial hub of Thailand, concentrating the majority of the country’s businesses, industries, and international investments. Nearly all major banks, corporations, and multinational headquarters operate from Bangkok.

Politically, it is home to the Thai government, the monarchy, and the country’s most influential institutions, further reinforcing its central role in national affairs.

Culturally, Bangkok dominates as Thailand’s main center for education, media, and tourism. It is home to the country’s top universities, major news networks, and renowned entertainment industries.

Bangkok’s dominance over the country also shows the downside to having a primate city.

This extreme concentration of power and resources has led to stark regional disparities, with rural areas and secondary cities struggling to compete for investment and development. As a result, Bangkok continues to experience rapid urban migration, congestion, and infrastructure strain, further reinforcing its primacy.

Now I’d like to look at some countries that do not have a primate city. I’ll start with the obvious one, the United States.

New York City, while the largest city and a global financial hub, does not dominate the U.S. in the way that London does in the UK or Bangkok does in Thailand. Other cities, like Los Angeles, act as global centers for entertainment and media, while Washington, D.C., serves as the political capital, housing the federal government.

Additionally, Chicago plays a crucial role in finance and transportation, Houston is a leader in energy and space exploration, and cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin are technology centers.

Likewise, Canada doesn’t have a single primate city. Toronto is the largest city with 2.8 million people, but it isn’t double the size of Montreal, which is at 1.7 million people.

Moreover, the capital, Ottawa, has over a million inhabitants, and important energy businesses can be found in Alberta.

Australia has five major cities with over a million people that are all state capitals: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth.

Sydney is the largest city, but it is only marginally larger than Melbourne.

None of the major cities is the seat of the central government, which is Canberra.

Primate cities don’t have to only be looked at through the lens of countries. Regions can have primate cities as well.

Each of the major Australian cities I listed is the primate city for their respective states.

Phoenix is the primate city for Arizona, Little Rock is for Arkansas, Las Vegas for Nevada, even though it isn’t the capital, and the Twin Cities is for Minnesota…..although I technically know there are two cities, but it’s all one metropolitan area.

Not every state has a primate city. Texas, Florida, and Tennessee do not.

Some countries people think have a primate city actually don’t. The Netherlands doesn’t have a primate city. Amsterdam is only slightly larger in population than Rotterdam, and Rotterdam is one of the most important port cities in Europe.

Primate cities are just a handy rule to analyze the economic, political, and cultural concentration in a country or region. It isn’t a perfect way to view the world, but it can come in handy.

They are a fact of life in most countries and aren’t always positive things as they often sap resources and talent from the rest of the country.

I want to shift gears a bit now and talk about a different but related topic of global cities.

A global city is a major hub of international finance, trade, culture, and diplomacy, exerting influence beyond its national borders. While a primate city dominates domestically, a global city is defined by its global connectivity and impact.

Being a global city doesn’t make it a primate city and vice versa. New York is a global city, but not a primate city. Paris, London, and Tokyo are both primate and global cities. Katmandu is a primate city in Nepal, but doesn’t rank high as a global city.

A global city is a more nebulous concept than a primate city. Lots of people make lists of the top cities in the world.

The most analytical list is the one created by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, a research institute based at Loughborough University, UK, that classifies and ranks cities based on their level of integration into the global economy.

They publish a list every two years that ranks cities into different categories based on their significance in the global economy, using data on multinational corporation offices, financial services, legal firms, and other business networks.

The list places cities into four categories: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Sufficiency. Within each category are further subcategories.

In the 2024 list, only two cities were placed into the Alpha++ category, and they probably will not surprise you: New York and London.

They are the top global financial and economic centers with unparalleled influence around the world.

Below them, in the Alpha+ category are eight cities: Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore, Shanghai, Paris, Dubai, Tokyo, and Sydney.

In the Alpha category are seventeen cities: Amsterdam, Bangkok, Chicago, Frankfurt, Guangzhou, Istanbul, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, Mumbai, São Paulo, Seoul, Toronto, and Warsaw.

I’m not going to list every city in every category as that would take a really long time. However, I should note that status as a global city isn’t purely a function of standard of living or GDP.

For example, some Alpha– cities include Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, and New Delhi, along with Washington, Berlin, and Stockholm.

There are groups other than the Globalization and World Cities Research Network that assemble similar lists about the world’s top cities.

The consulting firm Oxford Economics has put out its own list of top cities. It isn’t radically different, except it has more of a tech focus and as a result puts more emphasis on American cities.

They rank the top cities in the world as New York, London, Paris, San Jose, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

The Brookings Institute came out with a list of cities, which they call global giants. Their list was London, Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Osaka, and Tokyo.

Likewise, the journal Foreign Policy, and the consulting firm A.T. Kearney came out with a list that had: New York City, London, Paris, Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing, and Los Angeles.

You’ll notice that all of these lists are kind of the same. Almost every list has New York and London as the top two and then other, rather obvious, cities behind them in different orders.

The position of these cities is certainly not static. Their relative status is constantly changing.

I don’t have a crystal ball, but my guess, having been to almost all of these major cities, is that Hong Kong, Johannesburg, and a host of Western European cities will be relatively declining, and cities like Doha, Riyadh, Mumbai, and a host of Eastern European cities will be relatively increasing.

The status and importance of cities with respect to other cities and the countries they are in, is something that has been noted and debated since cities were first formed, and it will probably be something that we will be discussing for as long as cities exist.

The Executive Producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The Associate Producers are Austin Oetken and Cameron Kieffer.

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