Most popular world cities per Wikipedia article views

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by UrbanImpact

I don't think people outside the United States know about San Antonio. I would say Austin isn't that known either, but, more so than San Antonio. Perhaps Mexicans and Canadians know, but, not outside of them.

Basketball fans are more likely to be aware of San Antonio than Austin.

[mhays]

Every now and then I'm reminded that I know extremely little about even the #3 cities in many countries (to say nothing of others down the list), including countries I've been in repeatedly. I probably haven't looked at their Wiki pages either.

As for where cities rank, along with the popularity of Wikipedia in each country, there must be variation from other similar info sources in each place, as well as cities where everything is one one page vs. separated out. San Francisco will be downgraded due to popular pages about its subareas for example, particularly Silicon Valley, Oakland, etc.

As for Austin and San Antonio, those are probably mostly known in the US. If I know very little about French cities outside a few of them, why would someone in France know about our #25-30 cities?

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by mhays

Every now and then I'm reminded that I know extremely little about even the #3 cities in many countries

Vancouver in Canada. Birmingham in the UK. Marseille in France. Munich in Germany. Valencia in Spain. Naples in Italy. Nagoya in Japan. Guangzhou in China.

All pretty well known I should think.

Originally Posted by mhays

As for where cities rank, along with the popularity of Wikipedia in each country

Wikipedia is the most popular encyclopedia in all countries of the world except China, Russia, and South Korea.

Originally Posted by mhays

San Francisco will be downgraded due to popular pages about its subareas for example, particularly Silicon Valley, Oakland, etc.

Oakland had only 874,730 views in the past 12 months. San Francisco Bay Area 806,618 views. Silicon Valley had 1,362,564 views. So if you add these to SF, that's 5,824,124 views. But then you'd have to add Versailles (526,855 views), Montmartre (791,573 views), La Défense (443,252 views) to Paris, Westminster (385,521 views) and Canary Wharf (385,184 views) to London, Manhattan (2,160,385 views) to NYC, Hollywood (1,106,643 views) to LA, etc.

Originally Posted by mhays

As for Austin and San Antonio, those are probably mostly known in the US. If I know very little about French cities outside a few of them, why would someone in France know about our #25-30 cities?

I'd say the average Frenchman probably doesn't know Austin and San Antonio. Even my mom, who is university graduated, higher education than most people, if I asked her, she probably couldn't say what Austin is. She probably would say she has already heard that name, but I think she couldn't locate it on a map.

And a lot of people here, if you said Austin, they would replying "Austin Powers"?

[mhays]

I doubt the average American knows much about the third cities you mention. I've been to all of those countries and only really know much about one (Vancouver).

Being the top encyclopedia doesn't mean it represents the same percentage of web searches about those places. Encyclopedias aren't the only sources, and this will vary by location.

[New Brisavoine]

Naples, Marseille, Munich are quite well known.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by mhays

I doubt the average American knows much about the third cities you mention. I've been to all of those countries and only really know much about one (Vancouver).

Being the top encyclopedia doesn't mean it represents the same percentage of web searches about those places. Encyclopedias aren't the only sources, and this will vary by location.

I remember there was a guy from Florida on SSC about a decade ago who thought it was weird that there was so much Vancouver content since he'd never heard of it before joining the site. I fund that quire interesting since it showed how different people are in the real world outside of sites like this.

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I remember there was a guy from Florida on SSC about a decade ago who thought it was weird that there was so much Vancouver content since he'd never heard of it before joining the site.

Vancouver is known in France mainly because of this song, which is still played regularly on the radios here (otherwise I don't think the city would be well known):

• Video Link

And *I* am among the less than 0.5% of French people who actually went to Vancouver.

[SIGSEGV]

I certainly know more than 3 cities in many countries though I'm not always sure which one is #3, or if there is an obvious choice.

[38 Geary]

I was just in London and have no idea what the #2 or #3 cities are in the UK.

[SIGSEGV]

Cambridge and Oxford

[sopas ej]

Vancouver has always been on my radar. I'm old enough to remember Expo 86. At least in the Los Angeles media market, it kept getting advertised. I don't know if it was because of Expo 86, but many people i know in SoCal talk about Vancouver and how they've visited it, even before Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics.

And of course people I know who've visited Seattle say they also visited Vancouver since it's not far away (as well as Portland, OR).

I myself have never been to Vancouver... nor have I been to Portland, OR or Seattle, either.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by 38 Geary

I was just in London and have no idea what the #2 or #3 cities are in the UK.

There's a debate over whether it's Manchester or Birmingham which are basically the same size. For whatever reason Manchester is better known.

They're about both 20% the size of London.

[38 Geary]

Originally Posted by Docere

There's a debate over whether it's Manchester or Birmingham which are basically the same size. For whatever reason Manchester is better known.

They're about both 20% the size of London.

I've heard of Manchester bc of Manchester United (even though I don't follow soccer, but it's a well known enough brand), but not sure what Birmingham is associated with.

[Docere]

Manchester United is probably the main reason why it's better known. It's also central in histories of the Industrial Revolution.

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by Docere

There's a debate over whether it's Manchester or Birmingham which are basically the same size. For whatever reason Manchester is better known.

They're about both 20% the size of London.

Birmingham and Manchester used to be neck and neck, but in the past 15 years Manchester has clearly moved ahead of Birmingham and now there's no contest anymore. Manchester is the 2nd largest metro area in the UK, and has a larger economy than Birmingham.

That's because Manchester is located further away from London and therefore suffers less from the pull of London than Birmingham. Birmingham is also a rather ugly city (not that Manchester is super beautiful either, but it's a bit better than Birmingham).

Both cities, however, were mere villages before the Industrial Revolution, and it still shows. They don't have the allure of large European cities.

In the UK the real 2nd city in terms of historical importance, allure, grandeur, etc, is Edinburgh, even though in terms of raw numbers (population, GDP) it is of course far from being #2. Birmginham and Manchester are like Bielefeld or Essen in Germany, places that used to be nothing and grew only due to the Industrial Revolution.

In England before the Industrial Revolution the big cities were Bristol (largely destroyed during the war), Plymouth (mostly destroyed during the war), Norwich (still intact I believe), Nottingham (largely destroyed).

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by Docere

Manchester United is probably the main reason why it's better known. It's also central in histories of the Industrial Revolution.

Well on Wikipedia Birmingham is more researched than Manchester. That surprised me I must admit. In the past 12 months there were 2,330,840 views in the Birmingham article (all language versions), vs only 1,871,019 in the Manchester article. I was wondering whether it has something to do with that awful child sex rings stuff that the media keep reporting about. In North America you're probably largely unaware of it, but here in Europe it has generated quite some media attention (especially in the UK). So that could explain more researches for Birmingham.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Docere

There's a debate over whether it's Manchester or Birmingham which are basically the same size. For whatever reason Manchester is better known.

They're about both 20% the size of London.

Manchester hosted a notably influential and vibrant electronic music (rave) scene well into the early 1990s.

[sopas ej]

I knew of Birmingham because of that Morrissey song. Can't stand the guy, btw.

[New Brisavoine]

Visibility of 2nd and 3rd city on Wikipedia (all language versions). When the 2nd city is the capital city (Rome in Italy, Ankara in Turkey, Beijing in China), I'm not listing it, because it skews the results.

2nd city:
- Los Angeles (USA): 5,032,370
- Barcelona (Spain): 3,705,897
- Mumbai (India): 2,900,310
- Hamburg (Germany): 2,877,690
- Rio de Janeiro (Brazil): 2,420,761
- Montreal (Canada): 2,337,606
- Lyon (France): 2,237,986
- Osaka (Japan): 2,051,535
- Manchester (UK): 1,871,019
- Guadalajara (Mexico): 1,223,607
- Busan (South Korea): 1,147,491

3rd city:
- Chicago (USA): 4,362,535
- Munich (Germany): 3,055,617
- Naples (Italy): 2,788,712
- Valencia (Spain): 2,365,781
- Vancouver (Canada):2,350,758
- Birmingham (UK): 2,330,840
- Guangzhou (China): 2,094,014
- Marseille (France): 2,068,392
- Calcutta (India): 1,546,943
- Nagoya (Japan): 1,191,279
- Monterrey (Mexico): 1,167,798
- Izmir (Turkey): 1,052,819
- Belo Horizonte (Brazil): 651,011
- Daegu (South Korea): 491,163

[Docere]

Greater Manchester is slightly larger than Birmingham/West Midlands:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8r4e106z43o