Original MapBench study · 2026-10-14
The Closest Major-City Pairs in the MapBench Dataset
We calculate every unique city-to-city pair and rank the shortest great-circle separations.
What the ranking shows
Every unique city pair is measured once and ranked by great-circle distance.
Manila and Quezon City rank first in this comparison at about 11 km.
| Rank | City A | Country A | City B | Country B | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manila | Philippines | Quezon City | Philippines | 11 km |
| 2 | Tokyo | Japan | Yokohama | Japan | 26 km |
| 3 | Shenzhen | China | Hong Kong | China (SAR) | 27 km |
| 4 | Brussels | Belgium | Antwerp | Belgium | 41 km |
| 5 | Tel Aviv | Israel | Jerusalem | Israel | 54 km |
| 6 | Amsterdam | Netherlands | Rotterdam | Netherlands | 57 km |
| 7 | Amman | Jordan | Jerusalem | Israel | 70 km |
| 8 | Rotterdam | Netherlands | Antwerp | Belgium | 79 km |
| 9 | Casablanca | Morocco | Rabat | Morocco | 85 km |
| 10 | Zurich | Switzerland | Bern | Switzerland | 95 km |
| 11 | Guangzhou | China | Shenzhen | China | 104 km |
| 12 | Mexico City | Mexico | Puebla | Mexico | 107 km |
| 13 | Amman | Jordan | Tel Aviv | Israel | 109 km |
| 14 | Lyon | France | Geneva | Switzerland | 112 km |
| 15 | Manchester | United Kingdom | Birmingham | United Kingdom | 113 km |
| 16 | San Antonio | United States | Austin | United States | 118 km |
| 17 | Rotterdam | Netherlands | Brussels | Belgium | 120 km |
| 18 | Mumbai | India | Pune | India | 120 km |
| 19 | Dubai | United Arab Emirates | Abu Dhabi | United Arab Emirates | 123 km |
| 20 | Milan | Italy | Turin | Italy | 126 km |
Method
All unique i<j city pairs are calculated using the same great-circle method.
Important caveat
This is a ranking inside MapBench's curated major-city dataset, not a complete census of every settlement on Earth. Population values are approximate and city-centre coordinates are used consistently for comparison.
The study is useful for reproducible geographic comparison and method demonstrations. It should not be cited as an official global urban ranking without this scope note.
Reproduce the measurements
Use MapBench tools and the downloadable dataset to check individual values or reproduce the ranking.