Major cities of the world

API Access

Access dataset files directly from scripts, code, or AI agents.

Browse dataset files

Dataset Files

Each file has a stable URL (r-link) that you can use directly in scripts, apps, or AI agents. These URLs are permanent and safe to hardcode.

/core/world-cities/

├ .gitignore

https://datahub.io/core/world-cities/_r/-/.gitignore

├ README.md

https://datahub.io/core/world-cities/_r/-/README.md

├ data/world-cities.csv

https://datahub.io/core/world-cities/_r/-/data/world-cities.csv

└ datapackage.json

https://datahub.io/core/world-cities/_r/-/datapackage.json

Key Files

Start with these files — they give you everything you need to understand and access the dataset.

datapackage.json— metadata & schema

https://datahub.io/core/world-cities/_r/-/datapackage.json

README.md— documentation

https://datahub.io/core/world-cities/_r/-/README.md

Typical Usage

1. Fetch datapackage.json to inspect schema and resources
2. Download data resources listed in datapackage.json
3. Read README.md for full context

Data Previews

world-cities

Loading data...

Schema

name	type	description
name	string	English name of the city
country	string	Common name of the country, in english
subcountry	string	Name of the major administrative area
geonameid	integer	id from geonames

Data Files

File	Description	Size	Last modified	Download
world-cities		1.3 MB	6 days ago	world-cities

Files	Size	Format	Created	Updated	License	Source
1	1.3 MB	csv		6 days ago		Geonames

List of major cities in the world

Data

The data is extracted from geonames, a very exhaustive list of worldwide toponyms.

This datapackage only list cities above 15,000 inhabitants. Each city is associated with its country and subcountry to reduce the number of ambiguities. Subcountry can be the name of a state (eg in United Kingdom or the United States of America) or the major administrative section (eg ”region” in France”). See admin1 field on geonames website for further info about subcountry.

Notice that :

some cities like Vatican city or Singapore are a whole state so they don't belong to any subcountry. Therefore subcountry is N/A.
There is no guaranty that a city has a unique name in a country and subcountry (At the time of writing, there are about 60 ambiguities). But for each city, the source data primary key geonameid is provided.

Preparation

This repository uses dataflows to process and normalize the data.

You first need to install the dependencies:

pip install -r scripts/requirements.txt

Then run the script

python scripts/process.py

License

All data is licensed under the Creative Common Attribution License as is the original data from geonames. This means you have to credit geonames when using the data. And while no credit is formally required a link back or credit to Lexman and the Open Knowledge Foundation is much appreciated.

All source code is licensed under the MIT licence.