What is rank size rule definition?

Explanation: The rank size rule states that the largest city in a given country will have of the population of the largest city in that country. If the largest city has a population 1,000,000, and we want to know the population of the fourth largest city, it will have of the population of the largest city.

What does the rank size rule state?

The rule states that the population of any given town should be inversely proportional to its rank in the country’s hierarchy of cities. The rank-size rule explains that cities of different population size are related to each other forming an orderly pattern of urban system.

How does a primate city affect the rank size rule?

Primate city (1 point) Magnitude (it is more than two times the size of the next-largest city) AND significance (it exerts social, political, economic dominance). Rank-size rule (1 point) Nth largest city is 1/n smaller than the largest city; more small cities, fewer larger cities.

Why were the rank size rule and primate city rule created?

Primate Cities and the Rank-Size Rule Geographer Mark Jefferson developed the law of the primate city to explain the phenomenon of huge cities that capture such a large proportion of a country’s population as well as its economic activity.

What cities follow the rank-size rule?

Some countries have some cities that fit in the rank size rule but other cities populations in the top 10. In the United States, New York City is largest, then Los Angeles, then Chicago, then Houston, then Phoenix, then Philadelphia, etc.

Why is the rank-size rule bad?

In short, the rank-size rule occurs because: The relationship between population size and population rank is inherently negative. This is obvious and accounts for much of the strong fit, but alone doesn’t account for the multiplicative and convex (to the origin) relationship.

Why is rank size rule bad?

How does the rank size rule explain the distribution of services?

Definition: A theory that explains the distribution of services, based on the fact that settlements serve as centers of market areas for services; larger settlements are fewer and farther apart than smaller settlements and provide services for a larger number of people who are willing to travel farther.

Who gave the theory of rank size rule?

If the slope of the line is equal or close to -1 (a straight line), the relationship is known as Zipf’s Law. Rank Size Rule is a simple model which states that population size of a given city tends to be equal to the population of the largest city divided by the rank of the given city.

What is a primate city?

Primate City •The largest city within a nation which dominates the country not solely in size – being more than twice as large as the second city – but also it terms of Influence “The primate city is commonly at least twice as large as the next largest city and more than twice as significant.” – Mark Jefferson, 1939

What is the rank size rule in urban geography?

Primate Cities and the Rank-Size Rule. The Rank-Size Rule. •If all cities in a country are placed in order from the largest to the smallest, each one will have a population half the size of the preceding city.

What is urban primacy and relative primacy?

Urban primacy can be measured as the share of a country’s population that lives in the primate city. Relative primacy indicates the ratio of the primate city’s population to that of the second largest in a country or region. Not all countries have primate cities.

What are theuses for rank-size rule?

Uses for Rank-Size Rule •Sets a general classification for Ranking cities by population in a country •Measures degree of primacy for a particular city in a country •Helps distinguish countries with special characteristics –Area, Wealth, etc… Primate City