Metropolis

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For other uses, see Metropolis (disambiguation).

A metropolis (in Greek μήτηρ, mētēr = mother and πόλις, pólis = city/town) is a major city, in most cases with a population of at least one million inside its urban area, and over half million inhabitants in the city proper^{[1] [2]}. It is usually a significant economical, political and cultural center for some country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections and communications. The plural of the word is most commonly "metropolises", though sometimes the Greek plural "metropoleis" is used, especially in academic writing or writings about ancient Greek history.

In a broader sense it refers to the city or state of origin of a colony (as of ancient Greece), a city regarded as a center of a specified activity, or a large important city.

Contents 1 Antiquity 2 Etymology and modern usage 3 Global/World city 4 Local definitions by country 4.1 Canada 4.2 India 4.3 United Kingdom 4.4 United States 5 Metropole 6 Metropoleis today 6.1 Africa 6.2 Asia 6.3 Europe 6.4 Oceania 6.5 The Americas 7 Notes and references 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] Antiquity

In the past, metropolis was the designation for a city or state of origin of a colony. Many large cities founded by ancient civilizations have been considered important world metropoleis of its time due to their large populations and importance. Examples include Alexandria, Antioch, Athens, Babylon, Benares, Carthage, Constantinople, Corinth, Damascus, Dholavira, Ephesus, Harappa, Jerusalem, Nanjing, Nineveh, Mohenjo-daro, Rome, Siracuse, Tenochtitlan, Tikal and Ur. Some of these ancient metropoleis survived until the modern days and are among the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.

[edit] Etymology and modern usage

The word comes from the Greek metropolis ("mother city"), which is how the Greek colonies of antiquity referred to their original cities, with whom they retained cultic and political-cultural connections. The word was used in post-classical Latin for the chief city of a province, the seat of the government, and in particular ecclesiastically for the seat or see of a metropolitan bishop to whom suffragan bishops were responsible. This usage equates the province with the diocese or episcopal see.

In modern usage the word is also used for a metropolitan area, a set of adjacent and interconnected cities clustered around a major urban center. In this sense "metropolitan" usually means "spanning the whole metropolis" (as in "metropolitan administration"); or "proper of a metropolis" (as in "metropolitan life", and opposed to "provincial" or "rural").

[edit] Global/World city

The concept of a Global city (or a World city) means a city that has a direct and tangible effect on global affairs through socioeconomic, cultural, and/or political means. The term has become increasingly familiar, because of the rise of globalization (i.e., global finance, communications, and travel). An attempt to define and categorise world cities by financial criteria was made by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC), based primarily at Loughborough University in England. The study ranked cities based on their provision of "advanced producer services" such as accountancy, advertising, finance and law. The Inventory identifies three levels of world cities and several sub-ranks (See World cities ranking).

A metropolis isn't necessarily a global city, or being one, it could not be among the top ranking due to its standards of living, development, and infrastructures.

[edit] Local definitions by country

[edit] Canada

Statistics Canada defines a census metropolitan area as one or more adjacent municipalities situated around a major urban core where the urban core has a population of at least 100,000.

[edit] India

In India, the Census Commission defines a metropolitan city as one having a population of over 4 million. [3]. Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai are the six cities that qualify. Residents of these cities are also entitled to a higher House rent allowance. The figure only applies to the city region and not the connurbation.

[edit] United Kingdom

Various conurbations in the United Kingdom are considered to be metropolitan areas (see Metropolitan county). The term 'Metropolis' itself is rarely used. London is archaically referred to as 'the Metropolis', although in more recent times the term has also been used to describe Bolton by some of it citizens, albeit in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.

[edit] United States

In the United States an incorporated area or group of areas having a population more than 50,000 is required to have a metropolitan planning organization in order to facilitate major infrastructure projects and to ensure financial solubility. Thus, a population of 50,000 or greater has been used as a de facto standard in the United States to define a metropolis. A similar definition is used by the United States Census Bureau. They define a metropolitan statistical area as at least one urbanized area of 50,000 or more inhabitants.

[edit] Metropole

Main article: Metropole

Like in the UK, in French and Portuguese language, the cognate word métropole (Fr.) / metrópole (Port.), designates the part of a country near or on the European continent; in the case of France, this would mean France without its overseas departments; for Portugal during the Portuguese Empire period, it used to be common to designate Portugal except its colonies (the Ultramar).

[edit] Metropoleis today

According to the main definition at the top of this article, worldwide examples of modern-day metropoleis by continent include:

[edit] Africa

Abidjan Accra Addis Ababa Alexandria Algiers Antananarivo Brazzaville Cairo Cape Town Casablanca Conakry Dakar Dar es Salaam Douala Durban Freetown Harare Ibadan Johannesburg Kampala

Khartoum Kinshasa Lagos Luanda Lusaka Maputo Mogadishu Nairobi Pretoria Rabat Tripoli Tunis

[edit] Asia

Adana Ahmedabad Aleppo Amman Ankara Bandung Bangalore Bangkok Basra Busan Beijing Beirut Bhopal Bursa Busan Cebu City Changchun Changsha Chengdu Chennai Chongqing Daegu Daejeon Dhaka Damascus Dalian Delhi Dubai (?) Fukuoka Fuzhou Guangzhou Hanoi

Hangzhou Harbin Ho Chi Minh City Hong Kong Hiroshima Hyderabad Incheon Islamabad İzmir Jaipur Jakarta Jeddah Jerusalem Jinan Kaohsiung Kanpur Karachi Kawasaki Kobe Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Kyoto Lahore Macau Manila Mashhad Mecca Mumbai Nanjing Nagoya Nagpur Ningbo Novosibirsk Osaka Phnom Penh

Pune Pyongyang Qingdao Riyadh Sana'a Sapporo Seoul Shanghai Shenyang Shenzhen Singapore Surabaya Suzhou Taichung Taipei Tashkent Tehran Tel Aviv Tianjin Tokyo Wuhan Xiamen Xi'an Yekaterinburg Yerevan Yokohama Zhengzhou

[edit] Europe

Amsterdam Athens Baku Barcelona Belgrade Berlin Birmingham Bologna Bremen Brussels Bucharest Budapest Chişinău Cologne Copenhagen Dnipropetrovsk Donetsk Dortmund Dresden Dublin Duisburg Düsseldorf Essen Florence Frankfurt Genoa Glasgow Gothenburg Hamburg Hanover

Helsinki Istanbul Kazan Kharkiv Kiev Kraków Leipzig Lisbon Łódź London Lviv Lyon Madrid Málaga Manchester Marseille Metropolis Katowice Milan Minsk Moscow Munich Naples Nizhny Novgorod Odessa Oslo Palermo Paris Perm Porto Poznań

Prague Riga Rome Rostov-on-Don Rotterdam Samara Saint Petersburg Seville Sheffield Sofia Stockholm Stuttgart Tallinn Tbilisi Thessaloniki The Hague Toulouse Turin Ufa Valencia Vienna Vilnius Volgograd Voronezh Warsaw Wrocław Zagreb Zaporizhzhia Zaragoza Zurich

[edit] Oceania

• Auckland
• Adelaide
• Brisbane
• Melbourne
• Perth
• Sydney

[edit] The Americas

Asunción Atlanta Baltimore Barranquilla Belém Belo Horizonte Bogotá Boston Brasília Buenos Aires Cali Calgary Campinas Caracas Cartagena Charlotte Chicago Cincinnati Ciudad Juárez Cleveland Columbus Córdoba

Curitiba Dallas Denver Detroit Edmonton Fortaleza Goiânia Guadalajara Guatemala City Guayaquil Houston Indianapolis Kingston La Habana La Paz León Lima Los Angeles Louisville Manaus Maracaibo Medellín Memphis Mexico City

Mexicali Miami Minneapolis Monterrey Montevideo Montreal New York City Ottawa Panama City Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Port-au-Prince Portland Porto Alegre Puebla Quito Recife Rio de Janeiro Rosario Salvador

San Antonio San Diego San Francisco San Jose Santiago de Chile Santo Domingo San Salvador São Paulo Seattle Tegucigalpa Tijuana Toronto Valencia Vancouver Washington, D.C. Winnipeg

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] See also

• Ecumenopolis
• Global city
• Megalopolis
• Sister city
• Ecopolis (city)
• Large Cities Climate Leadership Group

[edit] External links

• U.S. Census Bureau: About Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistics