The Difference Between a City and a Town

The Difference Between a City and a Town Do you live in a city or a town? Depending on where you live, the definition of these two terms may vary, as will the official designation that is given to a certain community. In general, though, cities are larger than towns. Whether any given town is officially designated with the term town, however, will vary based on the country and state it is located in. The Difference Between a City and a Town In the United States, an incorporated  city  is a legally defined government entity. It has powers delegated by the state and county and the local laws, regulations, and policies are created and approved by the voters of the city and their representatives. A city can provide local government services to its citizens. In many places in the U.S., a town, village, community, or neighborhood is simply an unincorporated community with no governmental powers. County governments typically provide services to these unincorporated communities.Some states do have official designations of towns that include limited powers. Generally, in the urban hierarchy, villages are smaller than towns and towns are smaller than cities, though this is not always the case.   How Urban Areas are Defined Throughout the World It is difficult to compare countries based on the percentage of urban population. Many countries have different definitions of the  population size necessary to make a community urban. For example, in Sweden and Denmark, a village of 200 residents is considered to be an urban population, but it takes 30,000 residents to make a city in Japan. Most other countries fall somewhere in between. Australian and Canadian cities have a minimum of 1,000 citizens.Israel and France have a minimum of 2,000 citizens.The United States and Mexico have a minimum of 2,500 citizens. Due to these differences, we have a problem with comparisons. Let us assume that in Japan and in Denmark there are 100 villages of 250 people each. In Denmark, all of these 25,000 people are counted as urban residents but in Japan, the residents of these 100 villages are all rural populations. Similarly, a single city with a population of 25,000 would be an urban area in Denmark but not in Japan. Japan is 78 percent  and Denmark is 85 percent  urbanized. Unless we are aware of what size of a population makes an area urban we cannot simply compare the two percentages and say Denmark is more urbanized than Japan. The following table includes the  minimum population that is considered urban in a sampling of countries throughout the world. It also lists the percent of the countrys residents which are urbanized. Not surprisingly, some countries with a higher minimum population have a lower percentage of ​urbanized population. In addition, the  urban population in almost every country is rising, some more significantly than others. This is a modern trend that has been noted over the last few decades and is most often attributed to  people moving to cities to pursue work. Country Min. Pop. 1997 Urban Pop. 2015 Urban Pop. Sweden 200 83% 86% Denmark 200 85% 88% South Africa 500 57% 65% Australia 1,000 85% 89% Canada 1,000 77% 82% Israel 2,000 90% 92% France 2,000 74% 80% United States 2,500 75% 82% Mexico 2,500 71% 79% Belgium 5,000 97% 98% Iran 5,000 58% 73% Nigeria 5,000 16% 48% Spain 10,000 64% 80% Turkey 10,000 63% 73% Japan 30,000 78% 93% Sources Hartshorn, Truman A.  Interpreting the City: An Urban Geography. 1992.Famighetti, Robert (ed.).  The World Almanac and Book of Facts. 1997.World Bank Group. Urban Population (% of total). 2016.