Original MapBench study · 2026-10-13
Which Major Cities Have the Most Other Major Cities Within 500 km?
A transparent comparison of major-city clustering using a fixed 500 km great-circle radius and the same curated city dataset used by MapBench tools.
What the ranking shows
This study counts how many other cities from the same dataset fall within a 500 km great-circle radius of each city. It measures dataset clustering, not metropolitan population density.
Frankfurt has the highest count in this comparison, with 13 other dataset cities inside 500 km.
| Rank | City | Country | Cities within 500 km | Examples nearby |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frankfurt | Germany | 13 | Cologne, Zurich, Munich, Brussels, Antwerp |
| 2 | Cologne | Germany | 12 | Frankfurt, Antwerp, Brussels, Rotterdam, Amsterdam |
| 3 | Brussels | Belgium | 11 | Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Cologne, Paris |
| 4 | Paris | France | 11 | Brussels, Antwerp, London, Rotterdam, Lyon |
| 5 | Bern | Switzerland | 11 | Zurich, Geneva, Turin, Milan, Lyon |
| 6 | Rotterdam | Netherlands | 10 | Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Cologne, London |
| 7 | Amsterdam | Netherlands | 10 | Rotterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Cologne, London |
| 8 | Hamburg | Germany | 10 | Berlin, Copenhagen, Cologne, Amsterdam, Frankfurt |
| 9 | Zurich | Switzerland | 10 | Bern, Milan, Geneva, Munich, Turin |
| 10 | Geneva | Switzerland | 10 | Lyon, Bern, Turin, Zurich, Milan |
| 11 | Antwerp | Belgium | 9 | Brussels, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Cologne, Paris |
| 12 | London | United Kingdom | 9 | Birmingham, Manchester, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Brussels |
| 13 | Munich | Germany | 9 | Zurich, Prague, Frankfurt, Bern, Milan |
| 14 | Birmingham | United Kingdom | 8 | Manchester, London, Dublin, Glasgow, Rotterdam |
| 15 | Milan | Italy | 8 | Turin, Bern, Zurich, Geneva, Lyon |
| 16 | Lyon | France | 8 | Geneva, Turin, Bern, Marseille, Zurich |
| 17 | Prague | Czechia | 7 | Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Kraków, Frankfurt |
| 18 | Marseille | France | 7 | Turin, Lyon, Toulouse, Geneva, Barcelona |
| 19 | Turin | Italy | 7 | Milan, Geneva, Bern, Lyon, Zurich |
| 20 | Manchester | United Kingdom | 6 | Birmingham, London, Dublin, Glasgow, Rotterdam |
Method
For each city, we calculate great-circle distance to every other dataset city and count peers at or below 500 km. The threshold is fixed for all cities.
The population sum is calculated internally as a secondary check, but the published ranking is ordered primarily by the number of nearby dataset cities.
Important caveat
This is a ranking inside MapBench's curated major-city dataset, not a complete census of every settlement on Earth. A city can rank as isolated here even when smaller cities and towns exist nearby. Population values are approximate and are not used to determine isolation or antipode distance.
The study is useful for comparing the dataset consistently and demonstrating geographic methods. It should not be cited as an official global urban ranking without this scope note.
Reproduce the measurements
Use the same underlying tools to check individual pairs and explore your own examples.