# What Do You Consider a "Small Town" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 29, 2008, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145 "2008-03-29T05:12:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/21 "2008-03-29T15:29:17Z")
I think of a small town as about 5,000 or less, but I think a person’s perception of this has a lot to do with where they’re from. My area has about ten million tiny towns. In fact, out of curiosity, I did a bit of searching. Every single town in the following list is within fifteen miles by road of me. I searched for directions on Google Maps to be sure. I didn’t even include the townships (there’s a ton of those, too) and I probably missed a few, but I still managed to come up with all of these: Hershey - 12,771 Highspire - 2,720 Royalton - 963 Steelton - 5,850 Elizabethtown - 11,887 Bainbridge, - 2,419 Palmyra - 7,096 Camp Hill - 7,636 Hummelstown - 4,360 Middletown - 9,242 Lemoyne - 3,995 Penbrook - 3,044 Billmeyer - Unable to find data, but very small Stacktown - Unable to find data, but very small Shocks Mills - Unable to find data, but very small Falmouth - Unable to find data, but very small Locust Grove - Unable to find data, but very small ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/22 "2008-03-29T15:32:45Z")
[QUOTE=kambuckta] Smaller than that and it’s a locality: the road in might sport a sign telling you you’re now in, say, Bringabongalong, but one blink and you’re on the road out again. [/QUOTE] What about Bringabeeralong, Didjabringabeeralong, Didgabringabongalong, Bringabeeranbongalong, Bringabonganbeeralong…? I’ve been ev’ry_where_ man… ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/23 "2008-03-29T15:33:51Z")
Note to the potheads: the above may have been in jest, but there IS a real place called Woodenbong (it’s in the hippy belt too). ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/24 "2008-03-29T15:40:44Z")
I live in what I call a smallish town - 10,000 or so. However, I think it’s as much about geography, infrastructure and history as it is about population. If there’s an identifiable centre, such as a square or a marketplace (in use or not), it’s a town. If the centre is a green, or if it’s strung out along a couple of intersecting roads, I’d probably see it as a village. A good example is one town I work in, which only has a population of 1,700, but has a clear centre with shops, banks, and once had a market and its own railway branch line. Unquestionably a town. Many other nearby places with larger populations are just villages. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/25 "2008-03-29T20:39:50Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] my friends always teased me about being a “country girl.” [/QUOTE] [NELSON] Ha, ha! 촌년! [/NELSON] [QUOTE=meenie7] Even though where I live is technically a “city” at 32,000 people, to me it’s a small town because it’s so provincial. It’s not anywhere people want to live. It’s where you live until you get out… [/QUOTE] I agree with this, (though it doesn’t have to be about opportunity). “Small town” is not strictly a question of numbers, but rather the atmosphere and the way people think and view the world. I grew up in San Diego, and it always seemed like a small town to me, even though it has a million people. It’s a town where you see someone buy the “official” daily, and he takes out the sports section and throws the rest away. (That is, if the Chargers are winning. If they aren’t, he doesn’t even want to read the sports section.) It’s a town where the “official” daily doesn’t have a single out-of-town correspondent—not even in L.A., let alone Washington. It’s a town whose city government is brazenly incestuous and corrupt, because they’re sure that Aunt Bea and Surfer Joe are too ignorant to care about, let alone understand what they’re doing. [QUOTE=Mosier] One of them, Kingman, I’ve just learned has an international airport! [/QUOTE] They only call it “international” because the drug runners from Mexico use it. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/26 "2008-03-29T21:40:43Z")
In all seriousness, the town I lived in until I was 10 didn’t have a post office, and all our mail was addressed to the nearest city. I’d say that’s a small town. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/27 "2008-03-29T23:38:19Z")
[QUOTE=installLSC] What do you consider a “small town”, and is that affected by where you grow up? [/QUOTE] Generally, any place with less than 100,000 people. Sometimes any place with less than one million, but that’s a bit broad. Definitely any place under 10,000 inhabitants. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/28 "2008-03-29T23:52:55Z")
Here’s the way to find out: Go to a bar in the town. When they play that John Mellencamp song, listen and ask yourself if the song works. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/29 "2008-03-30T00:56:04Z")
You can drive through it in less than a mile. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/30 "2008-03-30T01:05:50Z")
Small towns tend to have one main drag of a road, no post office (we cut the post offices back in the 1980s), possibly two grocers shops if they’re lucky, a pub, a real estate agency and accomodation about a mile or more from the main drag in farmstays (usually one or two). Population no more than 2000-3000. ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/31 "2008-03-30T01:47:59Z")
[QUOTE=clairobscur] I grew up in a village with a population of around 100. Anything with a population of less than about 10 000 is a small town in my book. Below 1 500 or so, it’s a large village. [/QUOTE] I hope the Paris of which you claim home is Paris, Texas. I have visited Toco, Texas at least twice a week with a population of 84. How is that for a small town? SSG Schwartz ---
**Author:** ![Most\_Creative\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Most\_Creative\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Most_Creative_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/32 "2008-03-30T02:14:45Z")
I consider any town with a population of less than 5,000 a small town. Now it might be skewed a bit because for the first 7 years of my life I lived in a town with a population of 59. Then moved to the outskirts of town with a population of about 150. It is considered “country” as I lived on a small hobby farm. The nearest “Town” as was about 10 minutes away and had roughly 2,500 people there. Now I live in a town with a population of 100,000. Even with my background, it doesn’t seem to be that large to me, but still much larger than I was used to. It was quite a change moving there. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/33 "2008-03-30T02:41:43Z")
[QUOTE=installLSC] I recently came back from vacationing in my home town of Toppenish, WA. Time after time when talking about it they refer to it as a small town even though it has 8,000 people. I kept correcting them “it’s not a small town”. Many of the towns in the area are much smaller than it. You have to have fewer than 3000 people to be a small town in my book. What do you consider a “small town”, and is that affected by where you grow up? [/QUOTE] Four digits or less in the population. ---
**Author:** ![8675309](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/8/ea5d25/32.png) [@8675309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/8675309)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/34 "2008-03-30T02:54:56Z")
To me anything under 10,000 is a small town. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/35 "2008-03-30T03:08:48Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I live in what I call a smallish town - 10,000 or so. However, I think it’s as much about geography, infrastructure and history as it is about population. If there’s an identifiable centre, such as a square or a marketplace (in use or not), it’s a town. If the centre is a green, or if it’s strung out along a couple of intersecting roads, I’d probably see it as a village. A good example is one town I work in, which only has a population of 1,700, but has a clear centre with shops, banks, and once had a market and its own railway branch line. Unquestionably a town. Many other nearby places with larger populations are just villages. [/QUOTE] The OP appears to be by a US resident and the term “village” is not commonly used to mean the next thing down from a town. The next thing down from a town is probably a “house”. I was raised in Yorkshire in a village near a small town. Doing a bit of searching I see that the small town had a population of 13,000 in the 2001 census and the village a staggering 5,500. The village has three shops and two pubs and not much else apart from, apparently, quite a lot of houses. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/36 "2008-03-30T03:42:09Z")
Anything under 60,000. I grew up in a town of about 70,000. This town is located in southern-ish New Jersey. Ten minutes into Philadelphia, two hours to Manhattan, and three hours to DC. NJ has plenty of small, dinky towns, but they’re so closely packed and so close to some seriously large cities that it skews your perception of small vs. big. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/37 "2008-03-30T06:34:26Z")
I never realized I grew up in a small town, until I wikied the demographics. Population: 1,176. And yes, apparently it’s a village. Small town, to me, often meant way out in the sticks–dirt roads. We had some dirt roads near us, but not a whole lot of agriculture, so I never made the connection. The smallest town I’ve ever spent a significant amount of time in was as a volunteer English teacher in Mexico. San José de los Guajes has a population of roughly 800. There is one main road and during ‘‘rush hour’’ downtown you might see someone on a donkey. [http://www.losguajes.com](http://www.losguajes.com). That definitely qualifies as a small town. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/38 "2008-03-30T06:41:32Z")
50,000 is the cut-off point for me, but a lot depends on what other towns or cities are within reasonable driving distance. I plan to move to Cedar City, Utah in a year or two. It has about 25,000 people and a university, but the next-closest town of any size is St. George, pop.70,000 or so, an hour away. Or put another way; No Trader Joe’s in town and no IKEA within an hour’s drive. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/39 "2008-03-30T11:48:25Z")
The smallest city I lived in had a population of around 400. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2008, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145/40 "2008-03-30T13:41:02Z")
A small town is where, if you leave your wallet at the library by accident, it is turned in with all credit cards and cash still inside. A small town is where you can’t go to the grocery store without running into at least 2 neighbors. A small town is where rumors spread by word of mouth faster than they do by Internet. A small town is where the mice are stoop-shouldered. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-a-small-town/443145.md?page=3)