URBAN HIERARCHY
CGC1DR Changing Populations
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An “urban hierarchy” is a ranking of communities from smallest to largest. Every
major city in Canada grew through the following stages:
All communities grown together
Hamlet
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Smallest kind of settlement, considered rural
Unusual in Canada as people have cars and drive to larger urban
centers making it difficult for small businesses to survive
Very small population, <100
Village
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Considered rural
Small population, 100 – 999
Offer a few more small lower order services
Town
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Considered small population centres
Populations between 1000 – 9, 999
Most have a main shopping area & provide all main goods/services
their resident need on a regular basis.
City
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Considered large population centres
Populations between 10, 000 or more
Offer high-order goods and services
Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs)
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Considered large population centres
Populations > 100 000 people
Cities that have grown SO big that there is no rural area between
them! Includes all villages, towns, and smaller cities near the major
population centre
Megacity
…..what’s that about?
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Also called metropolis or
conurbation
Populations exceeding 10
MILLION people…..WOW!
Tokyo, Jakarta, Seoul, Shanghai,
Karachi are all megacities.
Asia leads all continents with a total
of 17 megacities.
None exist in Canada as of 2015.
Toronto is the closest with a
population of 6,055,724.