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Microcities: Five of the World's 'Smallest' Cities

Author

Joe Peach

For the first time ever, the majority of the world's population live in cities. But whilst Asian megacities get most of the column inches, what makes a city varies wildly. If you checked out yesterday's list featuring five of the world's 'biggest' cities, this post could be considered its antidote. Here's five of the world's 'smallest' cities:

St Asaph – the newest and second least-populated city in the UK

A few months ago, St Asaph was just an ordinary town in north Wales. However, with the Queen celebrating her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, she decided assign city status to three UK towns. St Asaph got lucky, meaning all 3,500 residents can now consider themselves city-dwellers. Meanwhile, down in south Wales, St David's remains the UK's smallest city with just 1,800 residents.

Vatican City – the world's smallest city-state by geographical area and population

Located in Rome, Vatican City is 0.17 square miles in size and has a population of only 800. Though Vatican City is a largely historic walled-enclave, it only became an independent city-state in 1929.

Maza – the former least populated city in the USA

At 8 square miles and a population of five (yes, five), Maza was both the least populated city in the USA and least densely populated city. The reason for the past tense is that, despite being founded way back in 1893, Maza's city status was dissolved in 2002.

City of London – a city within a city

At 600 square miles and around 8 million residents, London is no microcity. But within London lies the City of London, otherwise known as the City or the Square Mile. Confused yet? During the Medieval period, the City of London was pretty much all of London, but as London grew the City of London's boundaries remained the same, and to this day it still has city status in its own right.

Adamstown – the world's least populated capital city

The Pitcairn Islands are located in the southern Pacific Ocean and have a population of only 48. That makes the islands the least-populated jurisdiction on the planet and home to the world's least populated capital city, in which all 48 of the island's residents live. Almost all residents descend from the crew of the HMS Bounty – a British merchant vessel that settled on the islands in 1790.

This Big City's Megacities/Microcities series runs until May 25th. 

Images courtesy of nerissa's ring, National Assembly for Wales, ChrisYunker, afiler and garryknight on flickr, and Wikimedia Commons