Twin cities

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This article is about the general concept of "twin cities". For the area typically called the "Twin Cities" in the United States, see Minneapolis–Saint Paul. For other uses, see Twin city (disambiguation).


Twin cities are a special case of two cities or urban centres that are founded in close geographic proximity and then grow into each other over time, losing most of their mutual buffer zone. In the United States, "the Twin Cities" usually refers to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area in Minnesota.

There are no precise criteria for twin-cityhood, but to be considered twin cities, the cities involved have to have a similar administrative status and somewhat comparable sizes; a suburb of a much larger population center is usually not considered to form a twin city with it. For example, South San Francisco (population about 65,000) is not considered a twin city with San Francisco (population about 850,000). However, cities considered twinned by proximity do not necessarily match demographically, economically, or politically.

In many historical cases, cities that grew into each other's space lost their individual identities, and the border or barrier originally separating them became almost irrelevant. An 1873 case of twin cities merging to become a united city is Budapest in Hungary, which began as two settlements (Buda and Pest) facing each other across the Danube at a strategic fording place along a trade route. In China, the three ancient cities of Hankou, Hanyang, and Wuchang, separated by the junction of the Yangtze and Hanjiang rivers, were joined in 1927 into the single entity of Wuhan.

Twin cities may share an airport into whose airport codes are integrated the component initials e.g. DFW (Dallas–Fort Worth), MSP (Minneapolis–St. Paul), and CAK (Akron–Canton, Ohio).

In some cases, such as Albury/Wodonga in Australia, the two cities are permanently divided by a state border, often one that strictly adheres to a geographical landmark, such as the Murray River that divides New South Wales from Victoria, and thus Albury from Wodonga. In other cases twin cities can be divided by an international border, but retain a cultural and historical similarity, for example Haparanda (Sweden) and Tornio (Finland).

Examples

Cross-border example of twin cities: Plaza Internacional of the Frontera de la Paz. On the left, Santana do Livramento (Brazil); on the right, Rivera (Uruguay).

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Continent Country Larger City Population Smaller City Population Total Population Notes/Reference
Africa Egypt Cairo 10,230,350 Giza 3,628,062 13,858,412 -
Africa Ghana Sekondi - Takoradi - 445,205 -
Africa Morocco Salé - Rabat - - -
Africa Morocco Fes - Meknes - - -
Africa South Africa Johannesburg - Pretoria - - -
Africa Congo DR and Republic of the Congo Kinshasa - Brazzaville - - -
Africa Zimbabwe & Zambia Victoria Falls - Livingstone - - -
North America Canada Battleford - North Battleford - - [n 1]

Americas

North America

Canada
United States

South America

Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Peru
Venezuela

International

Examples, sharing names or similar names, across an international border include:

Historic

Pairs with unrelated names

Asia

Current

International

Historic

Europe

Current

International

Historic

Oceania

Tri-cities

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Main article: Tri-Cities (disambiguation)

Quad cities

More than four cities

Examples of cities formed by amalgamation

Asia

  • Lahore, the second largest city of Pakistan, has, as of 2013, grown out so much that small towns by this giant city, such as Shahdara, have been absorbed in its city limits.
  • Wuhan in China consists of the towns of Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang in Hubei Province.
  • Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan, has been expanded to include smaller towns including Rawat in its territory.
  • Bangkok, the capital and largest city of Thailand, was created in 1971, when the previous Bangkok province (Phra Nakhon) was merged with Thonburi province.
  • Fukuoka in Japan, a city of 1.4 million people, formerly the twin cities of Hakata and Fukuoka until the late 19th century.
  • Saitama in Japan, a city of 1.2 million people, created in 2001 by the merger of the cities of Urawa, Omiya, Yono, and later Iwatsuki. Urawa and Omiya could formerly have been considered twin cities.
  • Kitakyushu in Japan, a city of 900,000 people, created in 1963 by the merger of Yahata, Kokura, Moji, Wakamatsu, and Tobata. Yahata and Kokura had formerly been major cities in their own right.
  • The cities of Saigon and Cholon merged in 1931 to form a single city named Saigon-Cholon; in 1956, the name Cholon was dropped and the city became known as Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City).

Europe

North America

Fictional twin cities

See also

Notes

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Weather story from 2006 The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 2006-12-31
  3. ↑ [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
  4. ↑ "It's a wise man who knows where Chatham ends and Rochester begins." Charles Dickens
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ http://www.grijalvo.com/Madrid/G_Barrios_Madrid_antes_municipios.htm
  8. ↑ Action Comics #451, DC Comics, September 1975
  9. ↑ New Adventures of Superboy #22, DC Comics, October 1981
  10. ↑ World's Finest Comics #259, DC Comics, October–November 1979
  11. ↑ The Flash (volume 1) #123, DC Comics, September 1961
  12. ↑ See e.g. the introduction of The Hogfather q:Terry Pratchett's Hogfather
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