Your ideal settlement-size (population)

[Levo]

Each settlement is different even with a similar population-size.

Based on your own experience, and in case you had friends in place, in what population-size settlement would you like to live the most?

The differing quality of similar-size towns-cities are another topic. If you feel like, you can start a conversation about that too.

[Bijlee]

I voted for "in a smaller settlement close to a city". Really I would like to live in a very rural area. I think rural areas are far more aesthetic and pleasant to live in. I like being around trees and rivers and having farms and orchards close by so that I can go visit their little shops and pick fruit. You can roam around more freely in the countryside too, without all the cars and people around.

There are some benefits to the city though... I'm never too far away from a hospital or a decent police station. There's no problems with commuting to work and volunteering. And then there's things like being able to go see orchestral/theater performances.
But ultimately, I don't like living downtown. It boils down to a couple main reasons:

-There's too much light pollution (sucks for stargazing).
-Too much air pollution, for that matter.
-There's too many people.
-I feel like creepy, perverted people are much braver there; I never feel so intimidated as I do when I'm downtown. This one may just be my experience though.
-There's no room for rollerblading, biking and the such without feeling like I'm going to get run over or knock over some kid.
-I like living around nature.
-It's loud.

Maybe in a more rural area about a half hour from the city would be alright. Living where it's too rural just ends up being impractical, however much I may like it there.

[Levike]

I like cities which have at least 500 thousand. 'Cause the bigger the better.

In my experience it's somewhat better if you can find anything you need
without having to leave the town/city.

My town has a pop of 130 thousand people by the way.

You can also find better education and healthcare there.
That's why I'm moving to Cluj-Napoca because there are the good universities.
And when it comes to finding a well-payed job ... that's another yes.

If I had to choose I would certainly live in some big European capital.

[Johanna]

I loved living in Gothenburg which has about 500,000 inhabitants in the city itself, then another 500,000 in the greater metropolitan area, so I voted 500 thousand - 1 million. Then of course, Gothenburg is the second largest city in the country, and the one with the largest port, so it probably feels a little bigger than it is in some ways.

Bigger places... not sure, I know that I find Stockholm too stressed and too... cold, for lack of a better word, and it's almost twice the size of Gothenburg if you compare the metropolitan areas.

As for smaller ones, I don't exactly dislike living in Lidköping, which has a population of about 25,000 in the town itself and about 38,000 in the municipality, but it does feel a bit constrained and there are several things that I miss. Not to mention that it's situated a bit off the main roads and railroads, so it's not that easy to get to other places if you don't have a car, or at least it takes longer than it should and involves changing trains or buses an extra time if you want to go anywhere further than to a neighbouring town.

Malmö seems nice though, and it has a population of about 280,000 in the city itself. But then again, its greater metropolitan area includes Copenhagen, which means you get all the advantages of a small-ish city but also all the advantages of a big city, but not the latter's disadvantages Sure, it comes with the price of having to learn how to decipher spoken Danish, but still

[Levo]

Nice to read all these!

Then I should tell too, right?

I grew up in a city/big town of just above 100 000 inhabitants. Being a teenager, it was perfect!
Just big enough to always have something to discover, and just small enough to have a big chance of meeting a friend just out of a sudden.
However, being a little child, I could imagine something closer to nature, or the bigger city-parks not so far from the centre, where I lived.

Now, going back home, it is boring, because there aren't enough to do for someone in his twenties, interested in various cultural events and people with similar interest. In Hungary, there is hardly any work outside of Budapest, for higher-educated people. So the others are gone too from the countryside. It can also be seen at the bars-clubs-café-night life choice of the city.

I lived in a town of 19 000 people, Viljandi, Estonia. It had a much more interesting cultural and night-life because of the arts academy in town. Many students and the events organized by them and for them made it fun living there. Also, it was closer to nature, so one could do more stuff outdoors.

During university years, I lived in a city of 165 000 then, with 36 000 students. By the school-year there was more bustle in the city than in my hometown, but in the Summer... it became empty No students, no nothing. More nature because of its location.

Budapest, 1.7 million in the urban area, 2.7 in the agglomeration. Very interesting! A hateful city with crowd and long lines everywhere. No private space, and you can feel the air is polluted. You're worth something only if you look good, wear trendy clothes. If you don't, you can go back to the outern districts where life isn't any different from the one in the countryside, just that it is even longer to commute to work.
If you manage to stay in the line, however, you find more possibilities for going to places you enjoy, find you friends, etc. Bigger choice for going out. Though, more crowded, the public transportation is so widespread and goes so often, that you can reach the hilly and forest-covered areas easier than in my hometown. (Since public transport is less developed and nature reserves concentrate to only one part).

[Lada]

I voted for the first option. As I live all my my life in the biggest city in Europe, it's quite logical I think. I have an experience of living in village (during summers when I was a child) and about not more than 2 weeks in the city with population of about 600 thousands, namely Novokuznetsk.

From child's point of view, village is a great place of course, nature, animals, fresh milk, fresh eggs etc. but when you grow up, you understand why there are so many alcoholics in villages. Currently villages are dying out in Russia. People move away in the cities or closer to cities for better life.

As for the cities with 500-600 000 inhabitants, they are too boring after Moscow. Yes, they got everything you need for going out, but number of these places are limited, new ones appear very seldom. It's more difficult to find job, even difficult to buy what you need. Thanks to e-commerce sites it's easier now, but I can imagine how it was before. Life is very slowly there, people are not interested in anything happening further than their region, some of them never left it and Russia is so big! And people seem to be "simpler" there, quite straightforward, without crazy hobbies, and yes, they're very conservative seeing Moscow as a totally spoiled place. I don't know what must happen to wake them up, but I wouldn't like to live there.

Moscow as Budapest as any other big city gives you lots of opportunities, it's the city which never sleeps, I can buy anything anytime, 24/7 shops and supermarkets are a usual thing here. But Moscow is one of the most expensive places to live, and like any other megapolis it's very rude and heartless place. But if you can conquer it, you can conquer the whole world.

[md0]

I live in a town of 5000 (registered, not necessarily permanent). I think that four or five times that would be ideal. In a city of 25 000 people you would be able to have some privacy ans feel more comfortable walking outside without being recognised.
of course the biggest city here has a population of 55 000 (Nicosia municipality) / 250 000 (metropolitan area adjacent to Nicosia proper) so that's my frame of reference.

[Itikar]

A small settlement near a city.
I am a countryman.

[linguoboy]

For six years of my life, I lived in a town of 2,600. Now I live in a city of 2.7 million. This is not by accident.

I don't drive and I'm not interested in learning to drive. In the USA, cities generally have to get quite large before they have a decent public transport infrastructure. (The city of 230,000 I lived in in Germany had better transit than my home town, which had a population of 2.7 million in the greater metropolitan area.) Otherwise I might be willing to live someplace a bit smaller.

[Johanna]

Lada, there seems to be a huge difference between Russian cities and Swedish cities in that respect. What you describe for cities the size of Gothenburg sounds more like towns the size of Lidköping

[Car]

Lada, there seems to be a huge difference between Russian cities and Swedish cities in that respect. What you describe for cities the size of Gothenburg sounds more like towns the size of Lidköping

Considering the difference in population between Russia and Sweden, that's not too surprising. Although I wouldn't say what Lada wrote is true for Germany either.

The one important thing for me is good public transport, but as linguboy wrote, a city doesn't have to be that big here to have it. Paderborn with its 144,000 inhabitants has a decent system (depending on what you're used to even good, but it does have a uni after all) and Hannover with its 500,000 inhabitants has one of the best, if not the best, systems in Germany. It is better than Hamburg's with its 1.7 million people (but that one is good as well).

[Varislintu]

Lada, there seems to be a huge difference between Russian cities and Swedish cities in that respect. What you describe for cities the size of Gothenburg sounds more like towns the size of Lidköping

Yeah, I had the same feeling. Considering the size of Helsinki proper is about 600 000. And that's our biggest city. Maybe a Moscower would find it lacking in stuff to do, but if I try to judge it from my own perspective, it seems very thriving and diverse in events, and new things pop up regularly.

Me, I like the size of Helsinki. Any bigger and there would probably start to be some serious traffic problems, and people would also simply start to spend more time in only their own districts -- I feel like it would just be like several Helsinkis next to each other. It's hard to tell, though, what in Helsinki is because of size, and what is because of capital status. Naturally the capital is a magnet for businesses and events for other reasons as well besides population size.

I also enjoyed living in Turku for a couple of years, which has 180 000 inhabitants. I enjoyed getting away from the pretentiousness of Helsinki for a while. Helsinki centre is often so full of people trying so hard to prove something. In Turku it's more laid back. And yet there was still a lot going on. The nice thing was, that events brought together a bigger section of the city for a common experience. In Helsinki, there's so much going on, that rarely do all your friends even know about the same events, much less all take part. I felt like people in Turku more often identified as Turkuans, whereas Helsinkians more often identify as members of their own subculture or hobby-sphere.

[Lada]

Lada, there seems to be a huge difference between Russian cities and Swedish cities in that respect. What you describe for cities the size of Gothenburg sounds more like towns the size of Lidköping

Well, I've never lived in towns like Lidköping, so I can't compare. Probably Russian Lidköping-like places are more depressive but it depends. My summer house is very near from 17 000 town, but it's not far from Moscow (101 km), has lots of factories that work for Moscow needs and it's situated on the federal highway so life seems to be very active there.

Novokuznetsk is in the central Siberia - you come there and it's like another planet in terms of people's "world-feeling". Though it has 600 000 inhabitants, it's not capital, it's not even a regional center. Big cultural events happen quite rarely, who will come in central Siberia taking into account that average salary is little bit more than 500 euros? Sport life is only around their hockey club who plays in KHL surviving every season. So it's not Gothenburg and not Helsinki, the town has low status according to Russian standards and situated far away from all centers. Those who want to achieve something leave it.
But I'll visit 80 000 town soon, for 2 days only. May be Novokuznetsk will be paradise after it, let's see.

[IpseDixit]

I think it's really difficult to judge a city by its dimensions. There are many other parameters that one needs to take into consideration.

And moreover I think this survey is very skewed towards European standards because lumping together all the cities which have more than 2 million inhabitants means lumping together cities of 10 / 15 / 20 million (which basically don't exist in Europe except for Moscow and Istanbul if we agree to consider it Europe) with cities that are up to 10 times smaller.

But anyways, I cannot really vote because for example, I'd have no problem living in London, Paris or Singapore but I'd have a great deal of problems living in Mexico City or New Dehli; likewise, I'd have no problem living in Geneva but I'd have a lot of problems living in Ramallah or Maseru, and finally I'd have no issue living in Monaco but the same couldn't be said for many other towns in the world.

[Psi-Lord]

I was born in a town called Vargem Grande do Sul. Current population: about 40,000 inhabitants. Even though I went to secondary school in a neighbouring city, São João da Boa Vista (85,000 inhabitants), it was just a twenty-minute commute, nothing out of ordinary, so that I did live in my home town for 18 years.

Then, when I was 19, I moved to a far bigger city, Londrina, with 540,000 inhabitants. Even though it’s the fourth largest city in Southern Brazil, it’s not particularly big when compared to some other places in the country as a whole; yet, it was a whole new universe for me, and I may even say I never totally enjoyed all it had to offer as I probably should have.

After about a decade living there, I moved back to a town, Cândido Mota, with 30,000 inhabitants, where I actually still live. I totally struggled to readapt living in such a small place after such a long time, and, in some ways, I still do. The closest city, Assis (100,000 inhabitants), is just 10 km (6.2 miles) from here, so there are many things we just hop on a bus and go there for, but there are also many other things we just won’t find even there, and that can be really frustrating sometimes.

When I was growing up, living in a big city was never in my mind. Even as a teenager, I dreaded the very idea of living in, say, São Paulo (12 million people in the city proper, 21 million in the metropolitan area), despite all the city has to offer. Campinas, with its 1.1 million people, was probably the largest place I thought of moving to (and I actually thought I eventually would).

I do think there are lots of good things about living in a small place. Knowing and being known by everyone can definitely come in handy (despite the busybodies), and this feeling of a real community is more than welcome. Yet, there are also all those things that you miss or that are really hard to get (there’s e.g. no local cinema here, and you’re doomed if you feel like ordering food after 11 pm). In many ways, Londrina was ideal for me exactly because of that – it felt like it gave me the very best of both worlds. Because of that, in my native experience around here, a city of between 500,000 and 1 million is probably ideal for me.

[Sol Invictus]

I like size of my native city, I imagine it might get better, if it's bigger, but I've also heard otherwise, so I vote for 500 000 to 1 000 000; the only other place I lived at was Tallinn which has population of about 400 000 and that was a torture, I felt like returning to civilization from some rural backwater every time I came back to Riga

[Hoogstwaarschijnlijk]

I voted for 100k - 200k.

I grew up in a village with 23.000 people, nearby a bigger city (200.000). I think it's nice for a child to grow up in a village, but nowadays I wouldn't like to live there, the public transport is less and it can be annoying when everyone knows each other...

Then I moved to Utrecht (over 300.000 inhabitants), which was okay to live in as a student, but a lot of students live there. But now I'm not a student anymore and you know, if we would be able to have a child one day, I wouldn't want to raise it in Utrecht. Plus that houses are very expensive here. And apart from one good friend we don't have any family nearby.

So we'll be moving to a city with 150.000 inhabitants, very central so that we can easily go by public transport to every big city, and with more family around (though not mine unfortunately, but mine lives in the south which is not practical for job perspective). So I hope this is our perfect city for now and 100k-200k it will be.

[Levike]

Do people in villages have that annoying habit
that they greet everybody they meet even if they don't know who that person is?

In my mom's village people do this.
At every 10 meters I have to reply with hello, hi, good afternoon, nice to see you, bye.

It's even worse when old ladies stop you to ask who are you.

This is one of the reasons I don't like small settlements.

[Hoogstwaarschijnlijk]

Do people in villages have that annoying habit
that they greet everybody they meet even if they don't know who that person is?

In my mom's village people do this.
At every 10 meters I have to reply with hello, hi, good afternoon, nice to see you, bye.

It's even worse when old ladies stop you to ask who are you.

This is one of the reasons I don't like small settlements.

Haha!
So true

Though in Utrecht I nod at a lot of people too, not only when I know them, but also when I pass them. But I'm not going to really say hi to them.

[Psi-Lord]

Do people in villages have that annoying habit
that they greet everybody they meet even if they don't know who that person is?

In my mom's village people do this.
At every 10 meters I have to reply with hello, hi, good afternoon, nice to see you, bye.

It's even worse when old ladies stop you to ask who are you.

This is one of the reasons I don't like small settlements.

That surely happens around here to some degree, even in towns probably as large as having 50,000 inhabitants, but I personally like that – except when you meet the same person two or three times a day and you just don’t know what to do after the first time.