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Post by freecharlie on Aug 30, 2016 0:26:34 GMT
I was reading the thread about country living and someone mentioned 40,000 as a small town.
Since I live in a town that if you included the surrounding area has about 1500, that seemed more like a large town to me.
What do you consider small town small city big citg?
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Post by Linda on Aug 30, 2016 0:55:27 GMT
village - population in the 100s
small town -population in 1000s
big town - population in lower 10,000s
small city -population in the upper 10,000s
city - population above 100,000
HUGE CITY - New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas/Fort Worth and the like
Obviously there's some overlap but that's kind of how I think about it.
The county seat in my county has about 12K people - I would consider that to be a big town but it's a city (legally). There's also one town which has just shy of 600 people (I would consider that a village). The vast majority of people in my county live in the rural, unincorporated areas - myself included.
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The Great Carpezio
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Post by The Great Carpezio on Aug 30, 2016 1:19:30 GMT
Village <1000
Town/Small town 1000 to 20,000
Small city/large town : 20,000 to 100,000
City: 100,000 to 500,000
Large city: 500,000 to 1,000,000
Metropolis 1,000,000 plus
These include the main entity and immediate suburbs/area for me. I think there is a word for a super metropolis (like 2million plus). I don't know it off hand.
Now, I think so much "depends" on context. I live in a city/immediate area of around 100,000 (bit more).Tthe city proper I live in is around 65-75k depending on whether college is in. I know people who live in metropolitan areas might think it's a small city or even small town. When I moved here 25 years ago the population of the immediate area was less(but still probably 80k plus) and it still had a small city feel. It doesn't anymore. Infrastructure, demographics, etc... Have changed it. (Good, bad and inbetween). Now, the town I teach in Is included in the 100k but the town proper itself is only about 15k. Boundries attached to the larger area of 100k and it still has a small town feel to it in most ways.
Like I said, it depends is socioeconomics, infrastructure and feel of the area---not just numbers imho.
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compeateropeator
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Post by compeateropeator on Aug 30, 2016 1:42:43 GMT
village - population in the 100s small town -population in 1000s big town - population in lower 10,000s small city -population in the upper 10,000s city - population above 100,000 HUGE CITY - New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas/Fort Worth and the like Obviously there's some overlap but that's kind of how I think about it. The county seat in my county has about 12K people - I would consider that to be a big town but it's a city (legally). There's also one town which has just shy of 600 people (I would consider that a village). The vast majority of people in my county live in the rural, unincorporated areas - myself included. This looks pretty reasonable to me, although I know that population doesn't define what is considered a village, town or city. In my state the big city is about 43,000 and the smallest city is 2588. We have more towns than cities. So I guess it is all a matter of context.   VT has 255 municipalities made up of: 237 - towns 9 - cities 5 - unincorporated areas 9 - gores |
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Post by Linda on Aug 30, 2016 1:47:58 GMT
In my state the big city is about 43,000 and the smallest city is 2588. We have more towns than cities. My sister lives in VT - her town has a population of about 3000 |
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compeateropeator
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Post by compeateropeator on Aug 30, 2016 1:57:10 GMT
In my state the big city is about 43,000 and the smallest city is 2588. We have more towns than cities. My sister lives in VT - her town has a population of about 3000 The town that I grew up in now has a population of about 8400, although I think it was around 6800 when I was a kid (way back in the olden days ). Burlington has about 43,000 and Vergennes is about 2588. Montpelier (our Capital city) has about 7900. It is the only state capital without a McDonald's. Strange claim to fame isn't it? |
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Post by Linda on Aug 30, 2016 2:13:42 GMT
It is the only state capital without a McDonald's. Strange claim to fame isn't it?  My sister has mentioned it's closer to drive to Canada than to drive to WalMart - pretty sure that McDonalds is a bit closer though - I'm hoping to visit her in November. I haven't been to VT since I was a kid and never to the area she lives in. |
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Post by chaosisapony on Aug 30, 2016 2:16:27 GMT
A big town would be a population of around 50,000 or so. A city maybe 100,000+. My town I live in currently has about 12,000 residents. The town I lived in before this had 500 residents.
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compeateropeator
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Post by compeateropeator on Aug 30, 2016 2:39:56 GMT
It is the only state capital without a McDonald's. Strange claim to fame isn't it? ![:D]() My sister has mentioned it's closer to drive to Canada than to drive to WalMart - pretty sure that McDonalds is a bit closer though - I'm hoping to visit her in November. I haven't been to VT since I was a kid and never to the area she lives in. I hope you can come and enjoy our beautiful state. I am guessing she lives in the Northern part (the Northeast Kingdom). Up there you have to be careful which way you turn so that you don't actually end up in Canada...hahaha. There is a lake/pond (Wallace Pond) that we kayak on that is part in VT and part in Canada and it always makes me nervous. |
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Peal
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Post by Peal on Aug 30, 2016 2:54:22 GMT
we moved this summer from a city of 2 million+ to a community of >900. I kind of wish we ended up somewhere in between.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 30, 2016 3:02:55 GMT
Village <1000 Town/Small town 1000 to 20,000 Small city/large town : 20,000 to 100,000 City: 100,000 to 500,000 Large city: 500,000 to 1,000,000 Metropolis 1,000,000 plus These include the main entity and immediate suburbs/area for me. I think there is a word for a super metropolis (like 2million plus). I don't know it off hand. This description works for me too. |
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Post by Scrapper100 on Aug 30, 2016 3:09:08 GMT
Interesting having grown up in San Diego where the county population is 3.3 million. I consider it a big city. I grew up in a city within the county and it was maybe 50k but since all the cities in the area run together I consider the whole area.
In a smaller area now but the city has more than 100k defineately smaller but still consider it a big city.
I am hoping we can retire somewhere much less crowded I think the area has about 50k but that includes many cities ranging from 800 to 25k. I am done with traffic but want to be able to still shop at stores like Target and Costco and not a micro store.
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Post by secondlife on Aug 30, 2016 3:21:17 GMT
Small town - where I grew up, less than 1000
Small city - where I live now, 25k
Medium city - San Francisco, Philly, 1-2 million
Big city - London, NYC, 10-15 million
Mega city - Delhi, Mexico City, two of my dad's State posts when I was a kid, 20 million plus
I remember as a kid having no idea what a city of 2 million people looked like, let alone a city of 20 million people.
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Post by originalvanillabean on Aug 30, 2016 4:00:25 GMT
Grew up in a town with 25,000 population - I consider that small town as I now live in the DFW metro area (est population 7 million)
I did live in a town of population 300 for a year and half. I call that podunkville.
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Post by bc2ca on Aug 30, 2016 4:33:54 GMT
Well, I live in what I consider a small town of 165,000  . I grew up in a small town of 100,000, moved to a big city of 2.4 million and then to the suburbs of a big city. Technically it was a small town of 85,000 but when it is really considered part of a greater metropolitan area, I don't think it qualifies as a fully independent small town. All the amenities of the big city were 20-30 minutes away. |
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Post by llinin on Aug 30, 2016 9:22:29 GMT
There was a thread a couple weeks ago that mentioned small community and the county had a population of only 400,000. For me, that is a big county! My county has 67,000 people and my town has 30,000 and is the biggest one for an hour any direction. Since every place I have lived is this size, I think my view is skewed on size. Big city is anything bigger than 50,000 or so. Small town is smaller than where I live. My town is average, it doesn't seem small.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2016 10:45:59 GMT
Grew up in a town with 25,000 population - I consider that small town as I now live in the DFW metro area (est population 7 million) I did live in a town of population 300 for a year and half. I call that podunkville. I am the one the OP is talking about that mentioned 40,000 being a small town. I too feel it is small after having lived in Austin, TX. The population there is 912,000 and that does not include surrounding areas which ALL mesh into one HUGE city. I hated it. Compared to that, 40,000 is tiny to me, and I LOVE it!  So it definitely depends on where you are coming from like you said, originalvanillabean. I have everything I need here, no traffic, and if I need more, I have three larger cities I can travel to easily. I know a lot of people leave here because they say it's too small and boring. We hear it quite often (latest from a lady that moved to Raleigh). But not me. I love small and boring. LOL! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2016 10:55:46 GMT
I never know. My town has a population of about 15k (but double that if you consider not just the city limits but the township we are in with the same name). We have many restaurants (local and chain), stores, big box stores etc.
The nearest large city is about 15 miles away separated by countryside and suburban areas. That city has a population of about 100k.
So I used to think we were a small town but now I don't know. Do small towns have Walmart, Target, Pier One, Ulta, Michael's etc? I DO know that it's now too big for our tastes. Wish we could move out to the country or a truly small town. But for various reasons, that's not possible right now.
ETA---Officially, we are a city.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2016 11:04:37 GMT
My city has about 50,000+ people. To me, that's a big town or city. A big city would be Detroit, Chicago, NYC, etc.
A small town would be 20,000 or less.
I actually kind of define towns and cities based on the number of school districts within the city. For an example - my city has 4 public districts. The city where DH works has 4. Each high school grade has 300-500 students. Meanwhile, the small town only has one and the village combines their school with another village. Big cities would have even more schools or multiple high schools per district.
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Post by Linda on Aug 30, 2016 11:42:57 GMT
I actually kind of define towns and cities based on the number of school districts within the city. For an example - my city has 4 public districts. The city where DH works has 4. Each high school grade has 300-500 students. Meanwhile, the small town only has one and the village combines their school with another village. Big cities would have even more schools or multiple high schools per district. In my state - each county = a single school district. My county has 2 high schools (the second is a 6-12 school built about 15 years ago) I hope you can come and enjoy our beautiful state. I am guessing she lives in the Northern part (the Northeast Kingdom). Thank you! Yes - Northeast Kingdom - she's less than 30 min. from Canada...I'm further away than that from Target, lol (although we do have a Walmart) |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2016 13:23:16 GMT
90,000 is our population. We moved here from ft. Worth. I consider it a small town. Traffic is minimal. I can get anywhere I want to go in 12 minutes. It's perfect.
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Aug 30, 2016 15:02:30 GMT
A big town would be a population of around 50,000 or so. A city maybe 100,000+. My town I live in currently has about 12,000 residents. The town I lived in before this had 500 residents. This would be about what I would say. 100K would be a small city to me. But I think it depends on the metropolitan area as well. If there are several small cities right next to each other it will feel much bigger. I live near Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson South Carolina. The population is about 1.5 million separately none of them are over 100k in population, but all together they make a decent size city. |
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Post by scraplette on Aug 30, 2016 15:23:23 GMT
It's been a long time since my urban planning classes, I think a city is defined by self -governing and taxing and starts in the low 10K population.
However, I call Plano, TX a Town, as do my friends, we're just below 270,00 in population. I had to look that up, we're growing again. Our city council wants to refer to us as City, and we have some city-like issues.
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Anita
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Post by Anita on Aug 30, 2016 15:38:19 GMT
If it has a bar, a church, and a stop sign, we consider it a small town.
Add in schools, industry, and a Walmart, and it's a "real" town.
Add in universities, stadiums, and shopping malls, and it's a city.
Add in some seriously tall downtown buildings, large museums, and unbearable traffic, and it's a big city.
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milocat
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Post by milocat on Aug 30, 2016 15:46:56 GMT
village - population in the 100s small town -population in 1000s big town - population in lower 10,000s small city -population in the upper 10,000s city - population above 100,000 HUGE CITY - New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas/Fort Worth and the like Yes this. A hamlet is less than 100 people. I live in a village of 500 people. We have a town of 1100 10 minutes away from us. The city we go to only has 60-70,000 people, that's 45 minutes away. So when I see people saying that they live in small town of 150,000 people think it would blow their mind if they came to my small town! I think it's all perspective of what you are surrounded by. I live in such a rural area though, the county around us is almost the size of the state of Delaware and larger than Prince Edward Island. And it only has a population of 2200 people. |
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flute4peace
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Post by flute4peace on Aug 30, 2016 16:35:04 GMT
There are 3 incorporated towns in our county. The biggest one is around 2500, mine is 1200 & the other is 600ish. There are a couple of others that are probably 50-75ish. In between is farmland.
40,000 is a city in my world. If you have a Wal-Mart, you're a city. 
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Post by birukitty on Aug 30, 2016 21:28:41 GMT
village - population in the 100s small town -population in 1000s big town - population in lower 10,000s small city -population in the upper 10,000s city - population above 100,000 HUGE CITY - New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas/Fort Worth and the like Obviously there's some overlap but that's kind of how I think about it. The county seat in my county has about 12K people - I would consider that to be a big town but it's a city (legally). There's also one town which has just shy of 600 people (I would consider that a village). The vast majority of people in my county live in the rural, unincorporated areas - myself included. This sounds right to me. I've always considered where I live (Annapolis, MD.) a small city. I know it's considered a city and not a town. I just looked up the population and the latest they have on line is for 2014 which is 38, 856. They keep building here and it keeps getting more and more crowded. I've been here 23 years. It is just perfect for me. I wouldn't like living in a city or defiantly not a huge city at all. Too much concrete. And forget the boondocks. Been there, done that. No offense to anyone who prefers the country life. |
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my3freaks
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Post by my3freaks on Aug 30, 2016 22:40:56 GMT
We live in a suburb that according to Google has about 99,000 people. It's technically a "planned community", not a town or a city. We have 4 public high school and middle schools, 3 private/charter high schools (2 private/charter middle schools too), 20 public elementary schools, 4 charter & 2 or 3 private elementary schools.
I learned several new things about where I live today looking up info for this thread!
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Post by leftturnonly on Aug 30, 2016 23:04:10 GMT
Like I said, it depends is socioeconomics, infrastructure and feel of the area---not just numbers imho. Totally. Grew up in a town with 25,000 population - I consider that small town as I now live in the DFW metro area (est population 7 million) To be fair here, DFW includes the cities of Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington in addition to many other communities and the land area is enormous. Well, I live in what I consider a small town of 165,000  . I moved from Houston to a small city of 65k when I married. Logically, I knew it was a city but it sure felt like nothing more than a big town. I think it's all perspective of what you are surrounded by. This this this this this and this. |
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So it definitely depends on where you are coming from like you said, 
