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The largest city in each 10x10 degree latitude/longitude box

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Re: The largest city in each 10x10 degree latitude/longitude box

#11

Post by lb1lf »

pretendgeneer wrote: post #5

I was surprised by Leonora, Western Australia being there with it's population of 556 [1], I tried to find a bigger town in the area but couldn't. I wonder if that is the smallest town on that map? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonora,_Western_Australia

Sounds plausible; I was just looking up a few of the eastern Siberian towns - Ust-Nera (143E, 64N or so) at 6,500 inhabitants, Bilibino (167E, 68N) - also home to the world's northernmost nuclear power plant, 6,000 inhabitants...)

Closer to (my) home - Vardø (2,000) and Hammerfest (8,000) at the extreme north of Norway. Positively crowded!

Re: The largest city in each 10x10 degree latitude/longitude box

#12

Post by bryanrasmussen »

horsawlarway wrote: post #10
mytailorisrich wrote: post #2

Guangzhou is usually reported as larger than Shenzhen. A specific issue with the population of Chinese cities, though, is that the administrative 'city' division in China can be quite larger than what might be expected in the West.

a lot these are pretty bad representations of real population, even in the US. ex: Jacksonville is listed as the largest city in the southeast, and strictly speaking, this is true because it's a fairly dense population area. But it's a pretty misleading statement to say that it's the largest city. Jacksonville's metro population is only about 1.5 million. Atlanta is in the same box and Atlanta's metro population is n…

Lies, Damned Lies, and Geographic Visualizations.

Re: The largest city in each 10x10 degree latitude/longitude box

#13

Post by gbear605 »

pretendgeneer wrote: post #5

I was surprised by Leonora, Western Australia being there with it's population of 556 [1], I tried to find a bigger town in the area but couldn't. I wonder if that is the smallest town on that map? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonora,_Western_Australia

There’s Ittoqqortoormiit [1] on there too at a population of 452.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ittoqqortoormiit

Re: The largest city in each 10x10 degree latitude/longitude box

#14

Post by gbear605 »

ghj wrote: post #7

Why are some empty ocean squares colored dark blue and some light blue? Does light blue mean there is some land mass there but it's uninhabited?

Yes. That’s the concept I believe. I’m not sure how big a landmass had to be to make the map though.

Re: The largest city in each 10x10 degree latitude/longitude box

#16

Post by allengeorge »

I’m fairly sure Toronto is larger than Chicago...

EDIT: Yeah, back in 2013: https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/03/05/torontos_p... - and I’m pretty sure it’s almost at or crossed the 3M mark (COVID may have tossed a wrench in the latter).

Ah. It’s because Toronto is in the same box as _New York_ - my bad!

Re: The largest city in each 10x10 degree latitude/longitude box

#17

Post by hliyan »

wahlis wrote: post #8

This could serve as a good example of how politicians manipulate voting areas to ensure majorities. The results are probably correct, but the result is misleading.

Gerrymandering was the very first thing that popped into my head when I noticed the most populace city in my country lose out to what's basically a town because it ended up on a grid with another country's city. I nearly started a "that's clearly a mistake" comment before realizing what had happened.

Re: The largest city in each 10x10 degree latitude/longitude box

#18

Post by markphip »

horsawlarway wrote: post #10
mytailorisrich wrote: post #2

Guangzhou is usually reported as larger than Shenzhen. A specific issue with the population of Chinese cities, though, is that the administrative 'city' division in China can be quite larger than what might be expected in the West.

a lot these are pretty bad representations of real population, even in the US. ex: Jacksonville is listed as the largest city in the southeast, and strictly speaking, this is true because it's a fairly dense population area. But it's a pretty misleading statement to say that it's the largest city. Jacksonville's metro population is only about 1.5 million. Atlanta is in the same box and Atlanta's metro population is n…

I came to make the same comment. I was surprised to see that "technically" Jacksonville is nearly 2x larger than Atlanta but digging deeper it just seems about city borders. Jacksonville is pretty large and not that dense. Atlanta is pretty small and fairly dense. When you look at the metropolitan areas Atlanta is nearly 4x larger than Jacksonville metro area and that really just includes the area covered by MARTA so it is all pretty much "Atlanta".

Re: The largest city in each 10x10 degree latitude/longitude box

#19

Post by foota »

I think something more interesting might be like a voronoi diagram of all cities such that the city is in like the top 5 within a 1000 miles radius or something (or just that but without the voronoi part). This should preserve the fact that only the largest cities in some area are present, but eliminate the arbitrariness of the boundaries. I think you would want to compute this with a sweep line algorithm.

Re: The largest city in each 10x10 degree latitude/longitude box

#20

Post by mc32 »

horsawlarway wrote: post #10
mytailorisrich wrote: post #2

Guangzhou is usually reported as larger than Shenzhen. A specific issue with the population of Chinese cities, though, is that the administrative 'city' division in China can be quite larger than what might be expected in the West.

a lot these are pretty bad representations of real population, even in the US. ex: Jacksonville is listed as the largest city in the southeast, and strictly speaking, this is true because it's a fairly dense population area. But it's a pretty misleading statement to say that it's the largest city. Jacksonville's metro population is only about 1.5 million. Atlanta is in the same box and Atlanta's metro population is n…

To me that’s not misleading in that they count city proper rather than metro areas.

Both have their places, but I wouldn’t say one is more misleading than the other. One is administrative and one is more demographic.

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