Primate city:

A primate city is the dominant city among a country's urban areas. Geographer Mark Jefferson
coined the term in the 1930s and defined a primate city as one that is twice as large as the next
largest city in the urban hierarchy of a country and twice as significant economically. He defines
a primate city as being "at least twice as large as the next largest city and more than twice as
significant." Aside from size and population, a primate city will usually have precedence in all
other aspects of its country's society such as economics, politics, culture, and education. Primate
cities also serve as targets for the majority of a country or region's internal migration.
In geography, the phenomenon of excessive concentration of population and development of the
main city of a country or a region (often to the detriment of other areas) is called urban
primacy or urban macrocephaly.
Measurement
Urban primacy can be measured as the share of a country's population that lives in the primate
city. Relative primacy indicates the ratio of the primate city's population to that of the second
largest in a country or region.
Significance
Not all countries have primate cities. In those that do, there is debate as to whether the city serves
a parasitic or generative function.[9] The presence of a primate city in a country may indicate an
imbalance in development—usually a progressive core and a lagging periphery—on which the
city depends for labor and other resources.[10] However, the urban structure is not directly
dependent on a country's level of economic development.
Many primate cities gain an increasing share of their country's population. This can be due to a
reduction in blue-collar population in the hinterlands because of mechanization and automation.
Simultaneously, the number of educated employees in white-collar endeavors such as politics,
finance, media, and higher education rises. These sectors are clustered predominantly in primate
cities where power and wealth are concentrated.
Examples:
An example of a global city that serves as a primate city is London in the United Kingdom.
Addis Ababa is the primate city of Ethiopia - its population outshines that of all other cities in the
country.
Mexico City, Paris, Cairo, Jakarta, and Seoul have been described as primate cities in their
respective countries.