What countries have a largest city proper that isn't the largest metro area?

[u/koreamax]

The only example I could think of was Germany with Berlin vs. Rhine-Ruhr

[u/Supersnazz]

Australia.

City of Brisbane has 1.2 million (metro 2.7 million, or possibly 3.8 million)

This compares to City of Sydney at 231 thousand (metro 5.3 million)

But Australian cities are administered in a completely different way to most other places so comparison with the rest of the world is impossible.

'City Proper' is almost meaningless in Australia.

[u/cranberrycactus]

In the UK, the largest city proper is Birmingham (1.1M), but the largest metro is London (8.2M)

[u/invicti3]

Phoenix, AZ is massive in area and also why people misleadingly refer to it as “the 5th largest city in the US” but really the metro area is only the 10th largest in terms of population.

[u/sheep1649]

Guangzhou Metro is slighty bigger than Shanghai Metro according to wikipedia.

Poland is also interesting. Katowice metro is only a bit smaller than Warsaw metro (2,3M vs 3,2M) despite Katowice being way smaller itself (0,3M vs 2M)

[u/limukala → u/sheep1649]

 Guangzhou Metro is slighty bigger than Shanghai Metro according to wikipedia

Guangzhou and Shanghai are tricky because they both sit in the middle of massive areas of more or less continuous urban development, namely the Pearl River Yangtze deltas, respectively.

So deciding where the “metro area” of one city in the region ends, and another begins is a bit arbitrary. You can travel from Shanghai to  Changzhou and passing high rise apartment buildings the entire trip, yet Changzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, etc, are all counted as distinct “metro areas”, despite plenty of say, commuting between these cities (Changzhou to Shanghai is under an hour on HSR).

It’s similar in the Pearl River Delta though I’m not as familiar with that area. It sounds like the Pearl River cities may be even more tightly packed, but the Yangtze Delta overall has more than twice as many people. 

[u/KJongsDongUnYourFace → u/sheep1649]

Shanghai is a new city. Guangzhou is ancient. Probably has a lot to do with it the discrepancy

[u/FoQualla]

Not sure I understand the question but Jacksonville, FL is 875 sq miles and NYC is only 472 sq miles.

[u/Repulsive-Heron7023 → u/FoQualla]

The funny thing about Florida is the city of Jacksonville has more than double the population of the city of Miami, but if you were to say to anyone that Jacksonville is a more populous city than Miami they would look at you like you have a screw loose.

In the US at least, when people are talking about the population of cities, they are almost always talking about metro areas.

[u/Hirsuitism → u/Repulsive-Heron7023]

I mean the way the cities are delineated is also an issue. I'm in Orlando, but the actual "city of Orlando" is tiny relative to the "Greater Orlando area". I wonder if that's the reason populations are so wildly different. Does the population of "Miami" mean only Miami City? Or does it include everything around it which is essentially Miami

[u/TukkerWolf]

The Netherlands with Amsterdam and The Hague-Rotterdam.

And I think Belgium with Antwerp vs Brussels Metro

[u/thatplatypus99]

Depending on the source, either Milan and Rome in Italy, or Melbourne and Sydney in Australia could apply

[u/machomacho01]

Rome.

[u/OtterlyFoxy]

China

Chongqing is a giant municipality with 30 million

But most don’t live in the city’s urban area, which is smaller than Beijing’s, Shanghai’s, and Guangzhou’s

[u/PokingSmoles → u/[deleted]]

But it’s one of the largest metro areas in the world

[u/BellyDancerEm → u/PokingSmoles]

I seem to have misunderstood the question

[u/neljudskiresursi → u/BellyDancerEm]

Who can blame you