# A few questions about validity of cities and countries.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-questions-about-validity-of-cities-and-countries/203469>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 24, 2003, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-questions-about-validity-of-cities-and-countries/203469 "2003-09-24T03:14:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-questions-about-validity-of-cities-and-countries/203469/21 "2003-09-25T10:47:00Z")

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In Norway, it used to be that to become a _by_ (closest Norwegian equivalent to a city), a locality had to have at least 2000 inhabitants and be declared a _by_ by parliament. Since most members of parliament were completely unconcerned about whether any particular place was a _by_ or not, very few were declared.

Parliament, in fact, found the whole thing so boring that they changed the rules. Now, if you want to call yourself a _by_, you pass your own danged resolution in the local assembly and - poof! - you’re a _by_. This has led to some truly odd places declaring themselves _byer_ - the tiny, very far northern town of Hønningsvåg did, for instance, mostly to annoy their rival Hammerfest, which had been billing itself as The World’s Northernmost City for years. On the other hand, here in Bærum, the township to the west of Oslo, we have 100,000 people and no cities. If the whole township was counted as a city, we’d be the fifth most populous in the country.

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**Author:** ![Barks\_dog\_food](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c68b51/32.png) [@Barks\_dog\_food](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barks_dog_food)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-questions-about-validity-of-cities-and-countries/203469/22 "2003-09-25T13:57:56Z")

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I don’t know if you were joking but it’s spelled Honningsvåg.

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**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-questions-about-validity-of-cities-and-countries/203469/23 "2003-09-25T22:28:44Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by chiefgnome \*  
> \*\*so it’s less confusing to use “nation” or “state”.  
> \*\*

Actually, this use of the word “nation” is a pet peeve of mine. The primary meaning of the word is a group of people sharing a common culture, regardless of their political status. The Jewish nation, for example, predates and is non-coterminous with the State of Israel. Similarly, we may talk of the Kurdish, Chechen or Sioux peoples as nations, without any political judgement being inferred.

I believe the use of “nation” to mean state is popularised partly by US usage (“our nation’s capital”), and partly by the name of the United Nations Organisation, which in practice is an assembly of states, not nations.

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