Hierarchy of Consumer Services

Remember this?

Urban Hierarchy:

• Hamlet
• Village
• Town
• City
• Metropolitan Area
• Megalopolis

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Hamlet

ex: Effie, MN – population 92

• The most crowded rural place
• Smallest in urban hierarchy
• Low order services (if any)
• Maximum population approx 150

*Note that the exact population has less to do with what constitutes a type of area than the services offered

Village

ex: Ely, MN

population 3544

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• Bigger than a hamlet
• No need for public transportation – you can walk across the whole village
• More services than hamlet, still few (lower order)
• Up to 5000 people

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Town

ex: Austin, MN –

population 23702

• Term is often used to describe any “small” urban setting
• Often a dominant population center within a county
• More specialized services available (mostly lower)
• Up to 50,000 people

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City

ex: Duluth, MN –

population 86,128

• Urban setting with more specialized, high-order services available
• Up to 200,000 people

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Metropolis

ex: Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro Area 2.9 million

• This is a city that has expanded and absorbed other settlements around it
• Urban area is usually 2 counties big
• Diverse amount of specialized services available
• Up to 5,000,000 people

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Megalopolis

ex: BOSNYWASH

(the area between Boston, New York City, and Washington DC)

pop: ~50,000,000

• An agglomeration of metropolitan areas
• Can also simply refer to a very large urban area
• Center of business and culture
• Over 5,000,000 people

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Nesting of settlements and services

Minot, ND is a great example:

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Market areas across a developed country are a series of hexagons of different sizes

Hierarchy of Services

• Larger central places (megalopolises, metropolises, cities) usually offer more high-order or specialized services
• Smaller central places (towns, villages, hamlets) usually only offer low-order services
• Let’s brainstorm examples of high order and low order services…

Would you travel further to...

• Buy a new car OR the week’s groceries?
• See your family physician OR a heart specialist?
• Go to elementary school OR to go to high school?

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Services

Low Order Services

• Gas station
• Tavern / Eating place
• Grocery / Drug store
• Auto repair
• General merchandise
• Bank
• Think of what you see in all the small towns you’ve driven through

High Order Services

• Antique store
• Florist
• Specialized medical care
• Jewelry store
• Professional sports / theater
• Legal (lawyer) services
• Think of what you would “drive into town” for, or what do you “go up to the cities” to do?

A Hierarchy of Educational Services

Hamlet:

No Schools

Village:

Elementary

School

Town:

High School

City:

College/

University

Some General Patterns/Rules of Large Cities:

• Primate city rule - largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second ranking settlement
• Example: Paris (population over 9 million) is the capital of France. The second largest city in France is Marseilles with just over 1 million people

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• Rank-size rule - the country’s nth largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement
• Largest City – 12 million
• 2^nd City – 6 million (½ the size of largest city)
• 3^rd City – 4 million (⅓ the size of largest city)
• 4^th City – 3 million (¼ the size of the largest city)

*This rule only applies to areas without a primate city

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Now Let’s Put it All Together...

Click HERE for the activity instructions