Abstract
Many controversial questions about the shape and evolution of city size distributions can be solved if reliable, large and comparable set of data are used for several countries. We provide new empirical evidence by using the large data base ‘Geopolis’, which has strictly comparable figures for all towns and cities of the world over 10,000 inhabitants between 1950 and 1990. A Pareto model is used for identifying as metropolises one or a few large cities for each national urban system. From those data, two empirical power laws are established, linking the size of the metropolises to the size of their national urban system. The first is a transversal law: for a set of countries at a given date, the share of population concentrated in metropolises tends to decrease when larger countries are considered. The second law, which is longitudinal, shows that metropolises in the past have grown in a systematic way more rapidly than the rest of their urban system, invalidating Gibrat's urban growth model. Such empirical regularities could help for predicting the future of nowadays observed metropolisation trends.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, P.; Sanglier, M.: Dynamic models of urban growth. Journal of Social and Biological Structures 2, 269–278 (1979).
Alperovich, G.: An explanatory model of city-size distribution: Evidence from cross-country data. Urban Studies 9, 1591–1601 (1993).
Ascher, F.: Metropolis. Paris, Odile Jacob, 1995.
Auerbach, F.: Das Gesetz der Bevölkerungskonzentration. Petermans Mitteilungen 59(1), 74–76 (1913).
Bairoch, P.; Batou, J.; Chèvre, P.; La population des villes européennes de 800 à 1850. Genève, Droz, Centre d'histoire économique internationale, 1988.
Barbut M.: Des bons et des moins bons usages des distributions paretiennes en analyse des données. Histoire et Mesure 3(1), 111–128, (1988).
Beckmann, M.; McPherson, M.J.: City size distribution in a central place hierarchy: an alternative approach. Journal of Regional Science 10(1), 25–33 (1970).
Berry, B.J.L.; Garrison, W.L.: Alternate explanations of urban rank size relationships. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 1, 83–91 (1958).
Berry, B.J.L.: Cities as systems within systems of cities, Papers of the Regional Science Association 13, 147–163 (1964).
Bura, S.; Guérin-Pace, F.; Mathian, H.; Pumain, D.; Sanders, L.: Multi-agent systems and the dynamics of settlement systems. Geographical Analysis 2, 161–178 (1996).
Chapman, G.P.: The application of information theory to the analysis of population distribution in space, Economic Geography 2, 317–333 (1970).
Christaller, W.: Zentralen Orte in Süddendeutschland. Iena, Fischer, 1933.
Curry, L.: The random spatial economy: an exploration in settlement theory. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 138–146 (1964).
De Vries, J.: European Urbanization, 1500–1800. London and Cambridge, (Mass.) 1984.
Fletcher, R.: Settlement archaeology: world-wide comparisons, World Archaeology 18(1) 59–83 (1986).
Gibrat, R.: Les inégalités économiques. Paris, Sirey, 1931.
Guérin-Pace, F.: Deux siècles de croissance urbaine. Paris, Anthropos, 1993.
Haran, E.G.P.; Vining, D.R.: On the implications of a stationary urban population for the size distribution of cities. Geographical Analysis 5(4), 296–308 (1973).
Janelle, D.G.: Spatial reorganization: a model and concept. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 348–368 (1969).
Juillard, E.: L'armature urbaine de la France préindustrielle. Bulletin de la Faculté des Lettres de Strasbourg 6, (1970).
Mackinder, H.J.: The physical basis of political geography. Scottisch Geographical Magazine VI, 78–84 (1890).
Madden: On some indications of stability in the growth of cities in the United States. Economic Development and Cultural change 4, 236–252 (1955).
Malecki, E.J.: Growth and change in the analysis of rank-size distributions: empirical findings. Environment and Planning 12, 41–52 (1980).
Moore, F.T.: A note on city size distributions. Economic Development and Cultural Change vol. 7(1), 17–37 (1958).
Moriconi-Ebrard, F.: L'urbanisation du monde. Paris, Anthropos, coll. Villes, 1993.
Moriconi-Ebrard, F.: Geopolis, pour comparer les villes du monde. Paris, Anthropos, coll. Villes, 1994.
Morrill, R.: Migration and the Spread and Growth of Urban Settlement. Lund Studies in Geography, serie B, no26, 1965.
Parr, J.B.: Models of city size in an urban system. Papers and Proceedings of the Regional Science Association 25, 221–253 (1970).
Parr, J.B.: A note of the size distribution of cities over time. Journal of Regional Economics vol. 18, 99–212 (1985).
Parr, J.B.; Reiner, T.A.: A note on the dimensions of a national urban settlement system. Urban Studies 2, 223–230 (1980).
Pumain, D.: La dynamique des villes. Paris, Economica 231 p. 1982.
Pumain, D.; Robic, M.C.: Théoriser la ville. In: Derycke P.H.; Huriot J.M.; Pumain D. (eds.), Penser la ville, pp. 107–161. Paris: Anthropos 1996.
Pumain, D.: Pour une théorie évolutive des villes, L'Espace Géographique 2, 119–134 (1997).
Quandt, R.E.: Statistical discrimination among alternate hypothesis and some economic regularities. Journal of Regional Science 5(2), 1–23 (1964).
Reclus, E.: The evolution of cities. The Contemporary Review 67(2), 246–264 (1895).
Robson, B.: 1973, Urban Growth, an approach. London, Methuen.
Rosen, K.T.; Resnick, M.: The size distribution of cities: an examination of Pareto Law and Primacy. Journal or Urban Economics 8, 165–186 (1980).
Sheppard, E.: City size distribution and spatial economic change. International Regional Science Review, vol. 7, 127–151 (1982).
Simon, H.: On a class of skew distributions. Biometrika, 42, 425–440 (1955).
Steindl, J.: Random processes and the growth of firms. New York: Hofnur 1965.
Suarez-Villa, L.: Metropolitan Evolution, Sectoral Economic Change, and the City Size Distribution. Urban Studies 25(1), 1–20 (1988).
Zipf, G.K.: Human behaviour and the principle of least effort. Cambridge (Mass.), Addison Wesley 1949.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pumain, D., Moriconi-Ebrard, F. City size distributions and metropolisation. GeoJournal 43, 307–314 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006833025206
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006833025206