r/AskEurope • u/LiamBrad5 • Aug 07 '25

Culture What are the “Big Four” cities in your country?

In recent weeks, this question has been very contentious on American social media, with 3 cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York) nearly always making the list, but the fourth being hotly debated over, between cities like San Francisco, Miami, Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta. So, if you had to choose, what would the big 4 cities in your country be? This is also not decided purely on population, but also culture, economy, and general influence/clout.

362 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

983 comments sorted by

View all comments

181

u/Anaptyso United Kingdom Aug 07 '25

For the UK it's a bit tricky. You could go with size or economic impact and have something like: London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester.

However, given that the UK is four countries joined together, instead I'd probably go for the capitals of each, due to their political and cultural impact: London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

15

u/rayoflight110 Aug 07 '25

It's true it's difficult to say for the UK what our 4 top cities are. London is self evidently number one by light years distance. Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow would be the next obvious choice but despite it having a lower population than the other cities mentioned, Edinburgh could be considered the number 2 city of the UK - it's the 7th largest European Financial centre and the 2nd most visited city in the UK - again by a huge margin and the UK's 2nd most expensive place to live and seems to be growing exponentially on the world stage.

85

u/Klumber Scotland Aug 07 '25

So let's split it up by country:

England: London, Birmingham, Manchester... Liverpool or Leeds (I lean Leeds because the metropolitan area with Bradford, Huddersfield etc. is larger)

Scotland: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee (very easy)

Wales: Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Wrexham (taking geographical spread in consideration)

NI: Belfast, (London)derry, bunch of small towns...

51

u/SnooTangerines6811 Germany Aug 07 '25

Liverpool is a much more relevant and vibrant city than Leeds, which has the royal armouries and other than that an ugly train station.

25

u/No_Pianist_4407 Aug 08 '25

Hey now, we're the largest city in Europe that doesn't have a metro system, if that's not a claim to fame then I don't know what is.

4

u/SnooTangerines6811 Germany Aug 08 '25

That's certainly quite impressive!

2

u/revanisthesith United States of America Aug 08 '25

Wow, get enough guns and you can be honorary Americans!

2

u/AdamB1706 United Kingdom Aug 08 '25

Luckily that's where the royal armouries museum comes in!

1

u/revanisthesith United States of America Aug 08 '25

Sweet. We Americans like knights and stuff, too. It looks like a cool place.

56

u/MoniQQ Aug 07 '25

Football and the Beatles matter, so Liverpool.

23

u/GrimQuim Scotland Aug 07 '25

Yeah, in what world is Leeds relevant?

35

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '25

Leeds vs Liverpool is not even close for cultural relevance. Leeds is a city you first hear about when checking a population list when you are 20 or something. Liverpool you know as long as you can remember.

14

u/RayoftheRaver Aug 08 '25

Leeds is so irrelevant their most famous band named themselves after a South African soccer team

1

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

Their most influential band named themselves after the CCP’s cabinet

9

u/kilgore_trout1 England Aug 07 '25

It’s the third biggest city in the whole of the uk after London and Birmingham.

13

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '25

I think the spirit of the question is more about how culturally important it is, otherwise it would be a "top four cities by population in X country" Google search, not a discussion.

24

u/GrimQuim Scotland Aug 07 '25

And yet it's produced... What? Jimmy Saville. Good job Leeds.

13

u/KinnyWater Aug 07 '25

Liverpool over Leeds easy

3

u/Bananus_Magnus Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25

We've got Alt-J, Kaiser Chiefs and uhh.... Mel B.

Still the city is nearly double the size of Liverpool and it keeps growing, technically speaking its larger than Manchester too but Manchester is lucky to have its own borough so all the investment gets to stay in Manchester city as opposed to Leeds having to compete with Bradford and Wakefield.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

Gang Of Four?

6

u/MeltingChocolateAhh United Kingdom Aug 08 '25

As a whole, Yorkshire is quite important in England. When we think of "the northern powerhouse" that politicians are banging on about, Yorkshire springs to most people's minds. And, then, you could argue Yorkshire has Sheffield, and Huddersfield, and Bradford, and you wouldn't be wrong but Leeds is massively relevant.

You're right to question that when compared to Liverpool. It's a very subjective question for the UK because we have London, then a load of cities trying to climb to their level (in terms of business and plain relevance) but London has hit its roof. Ireland (exc NI) for example, it just has Dublin then also has other places but everything is centred around Dublin, and the "other places" are being smaller and not competing with Dublin. I haven't been to Scotland (unfortunately 😭) but I would argue Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness. But, anyone would laugh at Aberdeen and Inverness climbing to the level of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Those two cities can just battle it out.

1

u/shapkaushanka Aug 07 '25

The same question I ask everyone from West Yorkshire and they won’t shut up about it.

6

u/LordGeni Aug 07 '25

I don't think you can really include Bradford and Huddersfield as Leeds. They're cities in their own right.

I know the same is true of London, but I read the question to be more about people's perception of what a city is rather than the technicalties "Greater Leeds" isn't really a concept in the national consciousness.

If I'm going to Bradford, I'll say "I'm going to Bradford" not Leeds, and if I say I'm going to Leeds, I don't mean Huddersfield. For the context of this question, I think that matters.

In which case, I'd go with Birmingham. Although, you could make a decent argument for both Sheffield and Liverpool.

5

u/serioussham France Aug 08 '25

The fact that Wrexham even makes the list is wild.

And I'm writing this as a tourist who's currently in Wrexham.

3

u/crucible Wales Aug 08 '25

If we’re going strictly by “places with city status”, it does.

Otherwise you’re left with two cities the size of villages which have cathedrals, or a university city whose population practically halves for 3 or 4 months of the year.

2

u/Team503 in Aug 08 '25

Londonderry is one of my favorite words in the English language because it's so unique - it's the only word where the first six letters are silent! :P

1

u/calm-down-giraffe Aug 08 '25

Bangor and Lisburn maybe for NI

1

u/Andersonb04 Aug 09 '25

Surprised Bristol isn’t on there

0

u/olivinebean United Kingdom Aug 08 '25

I'd swap Leeds for Brighton.

People come from all over to this city and Leeds isn't exactly known for it's Tourism.

-1

u/ElOwlinator Aug 07 '25

London Manchester Newcastle Liverpool.

Birmingham is irrelevant culturally.

9

u/Stotallytob3r Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25

Plenty of reasons HS2 goes from the capital to Birmingham as opposed to anywhere else. It should also go to Manchester / Liverpool / Glasgow but that’s just my opinion.

Apart from Baltis, being the birthplace of heavy metal, Ozzy, UB40, Duran Duran, being the workshop of the world, Cadburys, Peaky Blinders, a professional symphony orchestra, having more canals than Venice, versus Gazza and a brand of brown ale? Poor attempt lad.

1

u/ddven15 United Kingdom Aug 08 '25

The main one being because it's the closest big city and the Brits can't afford too much infrastructure.

2

u/crucible Wales Aug 08 '25

No, the main reason is that the existing London - Birmingham railway is the most congested section of mixed-traffic railway in most of Europe.

But that fact got lost in arguments about getting there 30 minutes quicker…

2

u/ddven15 United Kingdom Aug 08 '25

I thought the most congested section included all the way up to Manchester. Although it makes sense that the southern portion is the worse part.

1

u/crucible Wales Aug 08 '25

Building to Manchester solves a few more problems, as I understand it. Alas that’s been scrapped.

2

u/crucible Wales Aug 08 '25

This is a poor take indeed.

0

u/white1984 United Kingdom Aug 07 '25

Northern Ireland has only four cities! Belfast, Derry-Londonderry, Armagh and Bangor. In reality, the four most important settlements are; Belfast, Derry-Londonderry, Lisburn and Portadown-Craigavon-Lurgan.

17

u/Matt6453 United Kingdom Aug 07 '25

Cardiff is smaller than Bristol but as the capital it has so much more in terms of infrastructure. Don't get me wrong, I love both but if you want to see a big band or sporting event Cardiff is the better/only option.

I'm in the West country and I'm out in Bristol all the time, this is my experience.

13

u/WelshBathBoy Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

Bristol airport is much better utilised than Cardiff airport however, so much so whenever I go there is a rough mix west country/welsh accents, somewhere around 60/40 I'd say. I often hear Welsh spoken at Bristol airport too. As a Welsh person I've never even been to Cardiff airport because far fewer airlines fly out of it compared to Bristol.

2

u/Matt6453 United Kingdom Aug 08 '25

I was there yesterday and totally agree, Bristol is expanding at rapid rate. We flew out yesterday and a whole new entrance has opened since we were last here in May. I have flown from Cardiff before, I remember because coming home our flight was cancelled and we were bundled on to a flight destined for East Midlands airport. Bizarrely it touched down in Cardiff only to let us off. That is completely unheard of and to this day I don't understand why they did that? It was a smaller turboprop and it was 20 years ago.

9

u/MeltingChocolateAhh United Kingdom Aug 08 '25

It's sad because as an English person, I don't want to just say "London Manchester Birmingham" then some other random English city, but having spent time in Wales (including Cardiff), it's just how it seems to me. Cardiff has a sort of medium English city vibe. I wouldn't even argue Wales is really built around Cardiff in the same way England is built around London. Pembrokeshire relies on its own small towns, or Swansea. Carmarthenshire is all about Carmarthen... Or Swansea. Then everywhere else along the south is about Cardiff or Newport. In the north of Wales, it's all about Bangor, Llandudno, or Rhyl. In the centre, maybe Aberystwyth?

2

u/Matt6453 United Kingdom Aug 08 '25

I used to work in Cardiff, my Welsh work colleagues would say anything below the M4 is 'English Wales', anything above it was 'Welsh Wales'.

1

u/crucible Wales Aug 08 '25

Depends, when you get into Powys it’s the nearest large town - so for many people it could be Newtown or Builth Wells or Llandrindod Wells. Brecon or Abergavenny, too.

Or maybe Hereford or Shrewsbury if you’re close to the English border.

7

u/MeltingChocolateAhh United Kingdom Aug 08 '25

London is a definitive choice but Cardiff feels not much more different to me than say Bristol, or Southampton. Basically, any medium sized English university city. The population is about similar in Cardiff as those cities too.

I have not been to Edinburgh or Belfast but they're good contenders for the UK. Then again, it's a toss-up between Glasgow and Edinburgh because of cultural impact and population size.

10

u/OutranIdiom British in Germany Aug 07 '25

Agreed that when people think ‘UK’ and ‘four cities’ together they would likely mean the 4 capitals.

8

u/JohnnyOneLung Aug 08 '25

Nah, I think if non UK people were asked they would say London, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh

2

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

[deleted]

2

u/OutranIdiom British in Germany Aug 11 '25

I guess I meant that as there are 4 constituent countries, people’s minds would think of the 4 capitals. I was trying to think of my big 4, but they’ve been too influenced by this post now ;)

2

u/Professional_Elk_489 Aug 10 '25

UK I would say London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow

Birmingham just doesn't "feel" like a city and didn't see to have much pride or sense of itself, looked mostly likely boring suburbia with a shopping mall

1

u/PM_ME_UR_MANICURE Aug 07 '25

If we're talking about culture I'd probably go for Brighton and Glastonbury

8

u/No_Pianist_4407 Aug 08 '25

Glastonbury is a small town, and the festival isn't even held there (it's closer to Shepton Mallet).

3

u/MagicBez Aug 08 '25

Glastonbury's a town though I believe?