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City-Size Distribution and the Size of Urban Systems

Author

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  • I Thomas

    (Department of Geography, Catholic University of Louvain, B-1348-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)

Abstract

This paper is an analysis of the city-size distribution for thirty-five countries of the world in 1975; the purpose is to explain statistically the regularity of the rank-size distribution by the number of cities included in the urban systems. The rank-size parameters have been computed for each country and also for four large urban systems in which several population thresholds have been defined. These thresholds seem to have more influence than the number of cities included in the urban system on the regularity of the distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • I Thomas, 1985. "City-Size Distribution and the Size of Urban Systems," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 17(7), pages 905-913, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:17:y:1985:i:7:p:905-913
    DOI: 10.1068/a170905
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rosen, Kenneth T. & Resnick, Mitchel, 1980. "The size distribution of cities: An examination of the Pareto law and primacy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 165-186, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mark Lorenzen & Kristina Vaarst Andersen, 2007. "The Geography of the European Creative Class A Rank-Size Analysis," DRUID Working Papers 07-17, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    2. Mark Lorenzen & Kristina Vaarst Andersen, 2009. "Centrality and Creativity: Does Richard Florida's Creative Class Offer New Insights into Urban Hierarchy?," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 85(4), pages 363-390, October.
    3. Zühal Çelebi Deniz, 2013. "Rank-Size Distribution Of Turkey And Trc2 Nuts-2 (Diyarbakir-S,Anliurfa) Region," ERSA conference papers ersa13p505, European Regional Science Association.
    4. Xin Li & Kyung-Min Nam, 2017. "One country, two “urban” systems: focusing on bimodality in China’s city-size distribution," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 59(2), pages 427-452, September.

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