thumb|Countries with a national primate city highlighted in yellow
A primate city is a city that is the largest in its country, province, state, or region, and disproportionately larger than any others in the urban hierarchy. A primate city distribution is a rank-size distribution that has one very large city with many much smaller cities and towns and no intermediate-sized urban centers, creating a statistical king effect.
The law of the primate city was first proposed by the geographer Mark Jefferson in 1939. He defines a primate city as being "at least twice as large as the next largest city and more than twice as significant." Aside from size and population, a primate city will usually have precedence in all other aspects of its country's society such as economics, politics, culture, and education. Primate cities also serve as targets for the majority of a country or region's internal migration.
In geography, the phenomenon of excessive concentration of population and development of the main city of a country or a region (often to the detriment of other areas) is called urban primacy or urban macrocephaly.
Measurement
Urban primacy can be measured as the share of a country's population that lives in the primate city. Relative primacy indicates the ratio of the primate city's population to that of the second largest in a country or region.
Significance
There is debate as to whether a primate city serves a parasitic or generative function. The presence of a primate city in a country may indicate an imbalance in development—usually a progressive core and a lagging periphery—on which the city depends for labor and other resources. However, the urban structure is not directly dependent on a country's level of economic development. An example of a global city that is also a primate city is Istanbul in Turkey. Istanbul serves as the primate city of Turkey due to the unmatched economic, cultural, and educational influence that the city possesses in comparison to other Turkish cities such as the capital Ankara, İzmir, or Bursa. Likewise, Mexico City, Paris, Cairo, Jakarta, and Seoul have also been described as primate cities of their respective countries. However, not all regions and countries possess a primate city. The United States has never had a primate city on a national level due to the decentralized nature of the country and because the country's second-largest city, Los Angeles, is not far behind the country's largest city, New York City, in either population or GDP. The metropolitan area of New York City has over 19 million residents, while Los Angeles's has roughly 13 million residents, as of 2022.
Sub-national divisions can also have primate cities. For instance, New York City is the State of New York's primate city, because its population is 32 times bigger than the state's second-largest city of Buffalo. New York City has 44% of the population and 65% of the GDP of the State of New York. The city of Anchorage is another U.S. example, with around 40% of the total population of Alaska living within the city's limits. China does not have a primate city at a national level, but several provincial capitals are disproportionately larger than other urban areas in the respective provinces. For example, Henan, Hubei, and Sichuan have provincial capitals (Zhengzhou, Wuhan, and Chengdu, respectively) that are significantly larger than the second-largest cities in those provinces, and each of those provinces has a population similar to that of a large European country. India does not have a primate city, as Delhi is not much larger than Mumbai or Kolkata in terms of population. However, many Indian states, such as Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, do have primate cities: Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, respectively. Other Indian states, such as Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, do not have any primate cities.
Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, has been called "the most primate city on Earth": in 2000 it was 40 times larger than the second-largest city of that time, Nakhon Ratchasima. As of 2022, Bangkok is nearly nine times larger than Thailand's current second-largest city of Chiang Mai, which has been growing in population and has also had its boundaries expanded to reflect that growth. Taking the concept from his examination of the primate city during the 2010 Thai political protests and applying it to the role that primate cities play if they are national capitals, researcher Jack Fong noted that when primate cities like Bangkok function as national capitals, they are inherently vulnerable to insurrection by the military and the dispossessed. He cites the fact that most primate cities serving as national capitals contain major headquarters for the country. Thus, logistically, it is rather "efficient" to target a national capital that is also a primate city; most of the governing power is contained in that one small area, and so are most of the people.
The metropolitan area of the city of Moscow, the capital of Russia, is 2.3 times the size of the metropolitan area of the next largest city, Saint Petersburg, and plays a unique and uncontested role of the cultural and political center of the country. It can therefore be considered a primate city.
Primate cities need not be capital cities: governments may establish a new capital city in an attempt to challenge the primacy of the largest city or provide more balanced growth. For example, in Tanzania, Dar es Salaam is still the primate city even though the capital was moved to Dodoma, a new city built to a plan, in 1996. A similar process (though without building a planned city) occurred when the existing city of Wellington was chosen as New Zealand's capital in 1865; Auckland, the capital before the relocation, commanded (and still commands) a greater share of the population and economy.
List
Africa
<!---The tables' population figures are correct for the metropolitan area, which usually has a much larger population than the municipality proper. Please do not "correct" population figures that seem too large, as they are based off the metropolitan area population.--->
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: right;"
|- style="vertical-align: bottom;"
! text-align: left;" | Country
! text-align: left;" | Primate
! text-align: right;" | Population
! text-align: left;" | Second largest
! text-align: right;" | Population
! text-align: right;" | Relative primacy
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Addis Ababa|| 3,352,000
| align="left" |Adama
| 342,940
|
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Algiers|| 7,896,923
| align="left" |Oran
| 1,560,329
|5.1
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Antananarivo|| 1,275,207
| align="left" |Toamasina
| 300,813
|4.2
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Asmara|| 650,000
| align="left" |Keren
| 82,198
|7.9
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Bamako|| 1,810,366
| align="left" |Sikasso
| 226,618
|8.0
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Bangui|| 622,771
| align="left" |Bimbo
| 124,176
|5.0
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Banjul-Serekunda area || 519,835
| align="left" |Brikama
| 101,119|| 22,183,000
| align="left" |Alexandria
| 6,100,000
|3.6
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Conakry|| 1,660,973
| align="left" |Nzérékoré
| 195,027
|8.5
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Dakar|| 1,200,000
| align="left" |Burao
| 425,000
|2.8
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Kampala|| 1,507,080
| align="left" |Nansana
| 365,124
|4.1
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Kigali|| 1,132,686
| align="left" |Butare
| 89,600
|12.6
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Kinshasa|| 17,239,463
| align="left" |Mbuji-Mayi
| 2,643,000
|7.3
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Lagos|| 16,637,000
| align="left" |Kano
| 4,490,734
|3.7
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Libreville|| 703,904
| align="left" |Port Gentil
| 136,462
|5.2
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Lomé|| 1,477,660
| align="left" |Sokodé
| 118,000
|12.5
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Luanda|| 16,255,900 || align="left" |Chiang Mai|| 1,213,000
| 13.4
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Beirut || 15,569,856 || align="left" |Ankara || 5,187,949
|3.0
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Jakarta|| 32,594,159 || align="left" |Surabaya || 9,958,656
|3.2
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Kabul
|18,868,021
| align="left" |Lahore
|13,004,135
|1.5
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Kathmandu || 3,941,000 || align="left" |Pokhara || 523,000
|9.8
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Kuala Lumpur || 9,085,737 || align="left" |George Town || 2,815,278
|3.2
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Kuwait City || 4,054,570<!---The table is based on metropolitan area populations. Tel Aviv's metropolitan area spans both the Tel Aviv and the Central Districts, and a portion of the Southern District, and is larger than Jerusalem's, despite the fact that the Jerusalem Municipality is larger than Tel Aviv municipality.---> || align="left" |Jerusalem || 1,075,800
|3.77
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Thimphu || 115,000 || align="left" |Phuntsholing || 28,000
|4.1
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Tokyo || 41,000,000 || align="left" |Keihanshin (Osaka)|| 19,060,000
|2.1
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Vientiane || 1,058,000 || align="left" |Savannakhet|| 120,000
|8.8
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Ulaanbaatar || 7,360,703 || align="left" |Mandalay || 1,726,889
|4.3
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Yerevan || 3,753,783 ||align=left|Thessaloniki || 1,084,001
|3.5
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Belgrade || 1,681,405 ||align=left|Novi Sad || 368,967
|4.5
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Bucharest || 2,272,163 ||align=left|Cluj-Napoca || 411,379
|5.5
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Budapest || 135,700
|5.4
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Copenhagen || 1,263,219 || align="left" |Cork || 222,526
|5.7
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Helsinki || 1,522,694 ||align=left|Tampere || 385,610
|3.9
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Kyiv || 2,952,301 ||align=left|Kharkiv || 1,421,125
|2.1
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|London || 1,110,887 ||align=left|Bergen || align=left|Brno || 402,739 ||align=left|Akureyri || 18,191
|11.5
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Riga ||align=left|Kumanovo || 75,051
|5.6
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Sofia || 1,681,666 ||align=left|Plovdiv || 544,628
|3.1
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Stockholm || 2,415,139 ||align=left|Gothenburg || 1,080,980
|2.2
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Tallinn || 437,619 ||align=left|Tartu || 95,009
|4.6
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Tirana || 800,986 ||align=left|Durrës || 201,110
|4.0
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Vienna
In Italy, primate cities exist at regional level: capital Rome (~2.7 million) alone has nearly half of the population of the Lazio region and is about 21 times larger than the second largest city Latina, and nearly three quarters of the region's population live in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. In Lombardy, Milan at ~1.35 million is seven times larger than second largest Brescia (ca 200,000); in Piedmont, Turin has eight-nine times the population of Novara and Alessandria; in Campania, Naples has 7 times the population of second-largest Salerno and in Liguria, Genoa at ~550,000 has six times the population of second largest La Spezia and the Metropolitan City of Genoa has three times the population of Province of Savona.
There are many more regional primate cities in Europe. If excluding national capitals, examples include Gothenburg in Västra Götaland, Sweden, Bergen in Vestland and Trondheim, Trøndelag in Norway, Tampere in Pirkanmaa, Finland and Aarhus in Midtjylland, Denmark.
In Portugal, the Lisbon Metropolitan Area has around 2.8 million people while the Porto Metropolitan Area, the second biggest and other only official metropolitan area, has around 1.7 million people. These two metropolitan areas have around 40% the country's population and are multiple times larger than the third-biggest city, Braga.
North and Central America
<!---The tables' population figures are correct for the cities' metropolitan areas, which usually have a much larger population than the municipalities proper. Please do not "correct" population figures that seem too large, as they are based on the metropolitan areas' populations.--->
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: right;"
|- style="vertical-align: bottom;"
! text-align: left;" | Country
! text-align: left;" | Primate
! text-align: right;" | Population
! text-align: left;" | Second largest
! text-align: right;" | Population
! text-align: right;" | Relative primacy
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Basseterre || 13,000 ||align=left|Sandy Point Town || 3,140
|4.1
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Belize City|| 65,834 ||align=left|San Ignacio || 21,229
|3.1
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Bridgetown|| 110,000 ||align=left|Oistins || 3,000
|36.7
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Castries|| 70,000 ||align=left|Gros Islet|| 22,647
|3.1
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Guatemala City|| 2,749,161 ||align=left|Quetzaltenango|| 792,530
|3.5
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Havana|| 2,106,146 ||align=left|Santiago de Cuba|| 433,099
|4.9
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Kingston|| 584,627 ||align=left|Portmore|| 182,153
|3.2
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Kingstown|| 16,500 ||align=left|Georgetown|| 1,700
|9.7
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Managua|| 1,401,687 ||align=left|León|| 213,718
|6.6
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Mexico City
Canada also has several primate cities at the provincial level: Vancouver for British Columbia; Winnipeg for Manitoba; Toronto for Ontario; Montreal for Quebec; Halifax for Nova Scotia; and St. John's for Newfoundland and Labrador.
Oceania
<!---The tables' population figures are correct for the metropolitan area, which usually has a much larger population than the municipality proper. Please do not "correct" population figures that seem too large, as they are based off the metropolitan area population.--->
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: right;"
|- style="vertical-align: bottom;"
! text-align: left;" | Country
! text-align: left;" | Primate
! text-align: right;" | Population
! text-align: left;" | Second largest
! text-align: right;" | Population
! text-align: right;" | Relative primacy
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Apia
| 36,735
|align=left|Afega
| 1,781
|20.6
|-
|align=left| New Zealand
|align=left|Auckland
|
|align=left|Christchurch
|
|
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Funafuti || 6,025 ||align=left|Asau || 650
|9.3
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Honiara || 64,609 ||align=left|Auki || 7,785
|8.3
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Nukuʻalofa || 24,571 ||align=left|Neiafu || 6,000
|4.1
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Port Moresby || 410,954 ||align=left|Lae || 76,255
|5.4
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Suva || 175,399 ||align=left|Lautoka || 52,220
|3.4
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|South Tarawa || 50,182 ||align=left|Abaiang || 5,502
|9.1
|-
|}
Australia does not have a primate city, but at the state level, each of the capital cities of the states and territories act as the primate city of that state or territory.
South America
<!---The tables' population figures are correct for the metropolitan area, which usually has a much larger population than the municipality proper. Please do not "correct" population figures that seem too large, as they are based off the metropolitan area population.--->
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: right;"
|- style="vertical-align: bottom;"
! text-align: left;" | Country
! text-align: left;" | Primate
! text-align: right;" | Population
! text-align: left;" | Second largest
! text-align: right;" | Population
! text-align: right;" | Relative primacy
|-
|align=left|
|align=left|Gran Asunción
See also
- Capital city
- Primate (disambiguation)
- Global city
- Megacity
- Metropolis
- Rank–size distribution
- Secondary city