How many incorporated places are registered in the U.S.?

There were 19,502 incorporated places registered in the United States as of July 31, 2019. 16,410 had a population under 10,000 while, in contrast, only 10 cities had a population of one million or more.

Small-town America

Suffice it to say, almost nothing is more idealized in the American imagination than small-town America. When asked where they would prefer to live, 30 percent of Americans reported that they would prefer to live in a small town. Americans tend to prefer small-town living due to a perceived slower pace of life, close-knit communities, and a more affordable cost of living when compared to large cities.

An increasing population

Despite a preference for small-town life, metropolitan areas in the U.S. still see high population figures, with the New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago metro areas being the most populous in the country. Metro and state populations are projected to increase by 2040, so while some may move to small towns to escape city living, those small towns may become more crowded in the upcoming decades.

A dataset listing New York cities by population for 2024.

As of 2019, most rural inhabitants in Africa resided close to small and mid-sized towns. The nearest city to almost ** percent of the rural population had between 10,000 and ****** inhabitants. Smaller shares of rural households, on the other hand, lived closer to larger urban areas. As of the same year, roughly half of the rural residents lived within ** kilometers from a city.

A dataset listing Illinois cities by population for 2024.

A March 2025 study analyzed the small towns in Italy with a population of under ***** with the highest average monthly number of Google searches in the past 12 months. Based on the analysis, *******, in the southern region of **********, recorded the highest figure, with an average of ******* monthly Google searches as of March 2025. **************** in ****** and ******** in ******** followed in the ranking, each with almost ****** monthly Google searches on average.

A dataset listing Washington cities by population for 2024.

A dataset listing Georgia cities by population for 2024.

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A dataset listing Montana cities by population for 2024.

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The urban–rural continuum classifies the global population, allocating rural populations around differently-sized cities. The classification is based on four dimensions: population distribution, population density, urban center location, and travel time to urban centers, all of which can be mapped globally and consistently and then aggregated as administrative unit statistics.Using spatial data, we matched all rural locations to their urban center of reference based on the time needed to reach these urban centers. A hierarchy of urban centers by population size (largest to smallest) is used to determine which center is the point of “reference” for a given rural location: proximity to a larger center “dominates” over a smaller one in the same travel time category. This was done for 7 urban categories and then aggregated, for presentation purposes, into “large cities” (over 1 million people), “intermediate cities” (250,000 –1 million), and “small cities and towns” (20,000–250,000).Finally, to reflect the diversity of population density across the urban–rural continuum, we distinguished between high-density rural areas with over 1,500 inhabitants per km2 and lower density areas. Unlike traditional functional area approaches, our approach does not define urban catchment areas by using thresholds, such as proportion of people commuting; instead, these emerge endogenously from our urban hierarchy and by calculating the shortest travel time.Urban-Rural Catchment Areas (URCA).tif is a raster dataset of the 30 urban–rural continuum categories for the urban–rural continuum showing the catchment areas around cities and towns of different sizes. Each rural pixel is assigned to one defined travel time category: less than one hour, one to two hours, and two to three hours travel time to one of seven urban agglomeration sizes. The agglomerations range from large cities with i) populations greater than 5 million and ii) between 1 to 5 million; intermediate cities with iii) 500,000 to 1 million and iv) 250,000 to 500,000 inhabitants; small cities with populations v) between 100,000 and 250,000 and vi) between 50,000 and 100,000; and vii) towns of between 20,000 and 50,000 people. The remaining pixels that are more than 3 hours away from any urban agglomeration of at least 20,000 people are considered as either hinterland or dispersed towns being that they are not gravitating around any urban agglomeration. The raster also allows for visualizing a simplified continuum created by grouping the seven urban agglomerations into 4 categories.Urban-Rural Catchment Areas (URCA).tif is in GeoTIFF format, band interleaved with LZW compression, suitable for use in Geographic Information Systems and statistical packages. The data type is byte, with pixel values ranging from 1 to 30. The no data value is 128. It has a spatial resolution of 30 arc seconds, which is approximately 1km at the equator. The spatial reference system (projection) is EPSG:4326 - WGS84 - Geographic Coordinate System (lat/long). The geographic extent is 83.6N - 60S / 180E - 180W. The same tif file is also available as an ESRI ArcMap MapPackage Urban-Rural Catchment Areas.mpkFurther details are in the ReadMe_data_description.docx

The Vatican City, often called the Holy See, has the smallest population worldwide, with only *** inhabitants. It is also the smallest country in the world by size. The islands Niue, Tuvalu, and Nauru followed in the next three positions. On the other hand, India is the most populous country in the world, with over *** billion inhabitants.

A dataset listing Florida cities by population for 2024.

SP.URB.TOTL. Urban population refers to people living in urban areas as defined by national statistical offices. It is calculated using World Bank population estimates and urban ratios from the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects. Aggregation of urban and rural population may not add up to total population because of different country coverages. The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

According to the survey among residents of small cities and towns in China, nearly ** percent of respondents used almost exclusively mobile payment while shopping. Only *** percent of respondents said they paid mostly by cash or credit cards.

A dataset listing South Dakota cities by population for 2024.

In 2023, the metropolitan area of New York-Newark-Jersey City had the biggest population in the United States. Based on annual estimates from the census, the metropolitan area had around 19.5 million inhabitants, which was a slight decrease from the previous year. The Los Angeles and Chicago metro areas rounded out the top three. What is a metropolitan statistical area? In general, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a core urbanized area with a population of at least 50,000 inhabitants – the smallest MSA is Carson City, with an estimated population of nearly 56,000. The urban area is made bigger by adjacent communities that are socially and economically linked to the center. MSAs are particularly helpful in tracking demographic change over time in large communities and allow officials to see where the largest pockets of inhabitants are in the country. How many MSAs are in the United States? There were 421 metropolitan statistical areas across the U.S. as of July 2021. The largest city in each MSA is designated the principal city and will be the first name in the title. An additional two cities can be added to the title, and these will be listed in population order based on the most recent census. So, in the example of New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York has the highest population, while Jersey City has the lowest. The U.S. Census Bureau conducts an official population count every ten years, and the new count is expected to be announced by the end of 2030.

Census data reveals that population density varies noticeably from area to area. Small area census data do a better job depicting where the crowded neighborhoods are. In this map, the yellow areas of highest density range from 30,000 to 150,000 persons per square kilometer. In those areas, if the people were spread out evenly across the area, there would be just 4 to 9 meters between them. Very high density areas exceed 7,000 persons per square kilometer. High density areas exceed 5,200 persons per square kilometer. The last categories break at 3,330 persons per square kilometer, and 1,500 persons per square kilometer.This dataset is comprised of multiple sources. All of the demographic data are from Michael Bauer Research with the exception of the following countries:Australia: Esri Australia and MapData ServicesCanada: Esri Canada and EnvironicsFrance: Esri FranceGermany: Esri Germany and NexigaIndia: Esri India and IndicusJapan: Esri JapanSouth Korea: Esri Korea and OPENmateSpain: Esri España and AISUnited States: Esri Demographics

This data layer produced by the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates (EDGE) program provides a geographic locale framework that classifies all U.S. territory into twelve categories ranging from Large Cities to Remote Rural areas. NCES uses this framework to describe the type of geographic area where schools and school districts are located. The criteria for these classifications are defined by NCES and rely on standard geographic areas developed and maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau. The NCES Locale boundaries are based on geographic areas represented in Census TIGER/Line. For more information about the NCES locale framework, and to download the data, see: https://res1ncesd-o-tedd-o-tgov.vcapture.xyz/programs/edge/Geographic/LocaleBoundaries. The classifications include:City - Large (11): Territory inside an Urban Area with a population of 50,000 or more and inside a Principal City with population of 250,000 or more.City - Midsize (12): Territory inside an Urban Area with a population of 50,000 or more and inside a Principal City with population less than 250,000 and greater than or equal to 100,000.City - Small (13): Territory inside an Urban Area with a population of 50,000 or more and inside a Principal City with population less than 100,000.Suburb – Large (21): Territory outside a Principal City and inside an Urban Area with population of 250,000 or more.Suburb - Midsize (22): Territory outside a Principal City and inside an Urban Area with population less than 250,000 and greater than or equal to 100,000.Suburb - Small (23): Territory outside a Principal City and inside an Urban Area with population less than 100,000. Town - Fringe (31): Territory inside an Urban Area with a population less than 50,000 that is less than or equal to 10 miles from an Urban Area with a population of 50,000 or more.Town - Distant (32): Territory inside an Urban Area with a population less than 50,000 that is more than 10 miles and less than or equal to 35 miles from an Urban Area with a population of 50,000 or more.Town - Remote (33): Territory inside an Urban Area with a population less than 50,000 that is more than 35 miles of an Urban Area with a population of 50,000 or more.Rural - Fringe (41): Census-defined rural territory that is less than or equal to 5 miles from an Urban Area of 50,000 or more, as well as rural territory that is less than or equal to 2.5 miles from an Urban Area with a population less than 50,000.Rural - Distant (42): Census-defined rural territory that is more than 5 miles but less than or equal to 25 miles from an Urban Area with a population of 50,000 or more, as well as rural territory that is more than 2.5 miles but less than or equal to 10 miles from an Urban Area with a population less than 50,000.Rural - Remote (43): Census-defined rural territory that is more than 25 miles from an Urban Area with a population of 50,000 or more and is also more than 10 miles from an Urban Area with a population less than 50,000.All information contained in this file is in the public domain. Data users are advised to review NCES program documentation and feature class metadata to understand the limitations and appropriate use of these data.

A dataset listing Alabama cities by population for 2024.