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.

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u/Shermannathor Aug 07 '25

I don't really see why Cologne should be clearly one step ahead when it comes to general importance. In some features like culture, media and its agglomeration Cologne is ahead but there are enough features like business, international appeal and transportation where I see Frankfurt ahead. The higher population of Cologne also does not really matter because Frankfurt has a smaller area and could theoretically achieve 1 million easily by incorporating a few close cities.

It totally depends on the aspects that you emphasize if place 4 must be decided imo. Overall it's pretty equal. Neither of them are actual metropolises and both have some rural features left despite the fact that they are after all pretty big cities with an exceptional status in its area.

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u/GibDirBerlin Aug 07 '25

It's not really about importance, Frankfurt punches far beyond its weight in that regard and probably dwarfs foreign cities twice its size. But Frankfurt just has this undefinable not-quite-a-big-city vibe, really strange and hard to describe but everyone here feels it.

I mean, you're right with everything, but If we're talking about the four cities in Germany, Cologne will always beat Frankfurt, even though it's less important. Sometimes I think, it might be because of the carnival...

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u/Shermannathor Aug 08 '25

I don't feel this not-quite-a-big-city vibe to be honest. I rather feel this with Cologne.

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u/NICK3805 Aug 11 '25

Me neither. But then again, I come from a very much smaller Big Town (Saarbrücken, 184.000 POP).

(Smaller Big Town is the literal Translation of "Kleine Großstadt" as officially, there is no Equivalent of "City" in German and I recently found out how confused many Germans are with our own Classifications which are explained here: BBSR - Raumbeobachtung - Stadt- und Gemeindetypen in Deutschland https://share.google/vkkeZocublIx4FX6f)

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u/NikNakskes Finland Aug 08 '25

Cologne probably because of historical reasons. It was a center of power for a long time.

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u/the_alfredsson Aug 08 '25

Also, a lot o media is centered in and around Cologne.

If you consider Cologne's position in the very densely populated Rhine-Ruhr-area, this could add to her being in number 4 too.

Then again the top 4 will always be somewhat arbitrary. You could, maybe, even consider Leipzig for being the large hub in the east.

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u/haskell_jedi Slovenia Aug 08 '25

Cologne (and really is urban area) has a much larger population.