- published: 08 Jun 2010
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The following is a list of the most populous incorporated places in the United States. As defined by the United States Census Bureau, an "incorporated place" includes a variety of designations, including a city, town, village, borough, and municipality. Some census-designated places may also be included in the Census Bureau's listing of incorporated places.Consolidated city-counties represent a distinct type of government that includes the entire population of a county, or county equivalent. Some consolidated city-counties, however, include multiple incorporated places. This list presents only that portion (or "balance") of such consolidated city-counties that are not a part of another incorporated place.
Note that this list refers only to the population of individual municipalities within their defined limits, which does not include other municipalities or unincorporated suburban areas within urban agglomerations. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metropolitan area populations.
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
This article ranks the world's largest cities, in population or land area, using a variety of ranking methods.
The question of determining the world's largest cities does not allow a single, simple answer. It depends on which definitions of "city" and "size" are used, and how those definitions are applied. Complex political/cultural/social situations, sometimes controversial or disputed, further confuse the discussion. Debate on this field is highly vulnerable to bias or manipulation, as people tend to prefer whichever definition most flatters their own city.
The "size" of a city can refer to either its land area or, more typically, its population.
The boundaries of a city can also be defined in any of several ways:
The numbers after each cell give the ranking of that city in that list. This table is designed to be a way to compare the different lists and discover which cities are well-recognised by all of them, without favouring one list over the others. Rankings in bold are the rankings of the cities in the top 20 of each sources' list. The first four columns are the four different lists used by Wikipedia; after them, external sources are given.