I've read some threads on small towns and I'm wondering what constitutes a small town in the US?

The reason I am asking is because in the US, I'm staying in a city with a population of 120,000 people. It has no nightlife, a soon to opened mall, and about an hour away from L.A. Also, it is about 70% caucasian. So does that mean I live in a small redneck town? lol.

TOWN - A town is an independent municipal corporation having all the powers and responsibilities conferred on it by The Urban Municipality Act, 1984. To be incorporated, it must contain 500 or more persons.

CITY - Large towns in common parlance. In the urban planning definition, towns with a population of one hundred thousand or more.

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Sounds like you live in a city, not a small town. However, it would be more accurate to say that you lived in a city with crappy nightlife.

Hahaha, cheers mate. Here in Australia, a small town would be a city that was far from the capital and a population of 1000 or less. You know, the kind of city where Bob owns the post office and Barry owns the only convenience store.

US to Australian translation:
City = Large suburbs

Australian to US:
City = kinda like L.A. with all the surrounding cities

It's confusing to me with all the differences but I kinda get it. Over in Aust, our cities have populations in the millions but the density of people per sq area is about the same. We don't have freeways to separate our suburbs where as in the US they do. So going around to another city to go out is common there.

Whereas in Aust, we go to town (downtown) to go out. Everything in OZ is centralised in town.

The great thing about the US is you can just hop on the freeway and head off to another city for a different scene.

EDIT: More or less geared towards DJ yanks. Ozzie DJs who have been in boths worlds will get it. Next time I'll try and explain what Tasmania is..

..it's Victorians who can't swim.

Originally posted by RBB
what constitutes a small town in the US?
The reason I am asking is because in the US, I'm staying in a city with a population of 120,000 people.
So does that mean I live in a small redneck town? lol.

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Certainly judging just by numbers it is not small for US since most cities are actully tiny.., so 120,000 sounds impressive. So you could be quite happy that your city represnts a huge black dot on a map. So officially it is not small.

But actually... well, it is not really a large city I think.
I am just guessing not small cities start with 300-500,000 of people.

Originally posted by RBB
I've read some threads on small towns and I'm wondering what constitutes a small town in the US?

The reason I am asking is because in the US, I'm staying in a city with a population of 120,000 people. Also, it is about 70% caucasian. So does that mean I live in a small redneck town? lol.

Click to expand...

souns just like my hometown about 115000 exept im way in the northwest (north, north west, west well about as far north and west as you can go for the main states)

Originally posted by RBB
Hahaha, cheers mate. Here in Australia, a small town would be a city that was far from the capital and a population of 1000 or less. You know, the kind of city where Bob owns the post office and Barry owns the only convenience store.

US to Australian translation:
City = Large suburbs

Australian to US:
City = kinda like L.A. with all the surrounding cities

It's confusing to me with all the differences but I kinda get it. Over in Aust, our cities have populations in the millions but the density of people per sq area is about the same. We don't have freeways to separate our suburbs where as in the US they do. So going around to another city to go out is common there.

Whereas in Aust, we go to town (downtown) to go out. Everything in OZ is centralised in town.

The great thing about the US is you can just hop on the freeway and head off to another city for a different scene.

Click to expand...

that was so confusing i'm not even sure if i live in australia anymore.

basically guys, i think he wants to find out if your structure is the same as ours.

I live in Australia. Australia has 9 differnent states/territories.
I live in the state of Victoria.
Australia>Victoria.
In Victoria there is a few Cities. Melbourne, by far the largest city in Victoria, with over 3 million living here. There are others like Geelong/Bendigo/Ballarat which are large and independent of Melbourne.
I live in the suburbs surrounding Melbourne.
Australia>Victoria>Melbourne.
Melbourne City (just called melbourne) is a centralised point which is home to much of the nightlife its made up of more suburbs. eg. Hawthorn/St Kilda/Docklands. In this area we have many nightclubs/pubs a casino, major sporting arena's for the big professional sports teams etc.

But in the outer suburbs, these are small, my suburb is about 30 minute drive to the city in good traffic. We have our own shopping center (mall) but not much in the way of paid entertainment. Eg. Cinemas, there are cinemas in 2 of the surrouding suburbs, there is 10 pin bowling in 2 of the surrounding suburbs. but nothing in mine.
Australia>Victoria>Melbourne>suburb-nameless for privacy reasons.

Metaphysically, if you want to know what an American small town is, "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder is a good place to start.

I didn't read the question.

According to Without a Paddle by Jay Leggett & Mitch Rouse, a good small town should have excellent grass fields.