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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Geography > Rank Size Rule and Primate City

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• The Rank Size Rule notes the relationship between the ranks of cities and their populations.

• It was advanced by Zipf in 1941

• The formula is where is the population of towns ranked , is the population of the largest town and is the rank of the town.
• For example, if the largest town has a population of , the second largest town will have a population of , the 3rd largest will have a population of and so on.

The Law of the Primate City

• The primate city is the largest most dominant city in a region.
• The degree of primacy refers to the dominance of the largest city over the rest of the country.
• Most LDCs (Less Developed Countries) have a high degree of primacy while most MDCs (More Developed Countries) have a low degree of primacy.
  • Factors that affect high primacy include
  • Having an underdeveloped economy
  • Having an agriculturally dominant economy
  • A rapidly expanding population
  • A recent colonial history

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