In the United States, I’d probably name Oregon City, the famous end of the Oregon Trail and the first city founded west of the Rocky Mountains during the pioneer era. Its population is only 37,000.
Ramstein, population ~5600
Famous for the Ramstein Air base, the bombing of the air base, the Ramstein air show disaster and the band named after all of that.
Dildo, Newfoundland.
Not really though.
Off the top of my head I’d say places like Gander, Churchill, Iqaluit - places known maybe for their location as much as their people and unique situations?
Edit: another comment (Aspen) made me want to mention Banff but Alberta isn’t acting Canadian anymore so it no longer counts.
Yellowknife has a population of 20,000. Is that considered small enough?
I’d say no in the context of the OP. That’s one of our major cities in our own way. And a territorial capital.
Omg…i spent 4 hours in Gander one evening, so it took about 20 hours to go Dallas -> Chicago -> Gander-> Chicago.
Nope
Man, I was struggling with this. The one I landed on is Halifax, just given its role as a port city and the story of the Halifax Explosion. But I’m having a hard time justifying that position.
There’s much smaller, even more interesting places but not much about them that’d attract international notice unless you’re visiting here or specifically curious about Canada.
The smallest Canadian city that I’d think most people around the world might know about is Niagara Falls, although they might only know about the falls and not know that it’s also a city.
Edit: I thought the question meant people around the world but I guess it could also mean just the people in your own country…
Gibraltar has a population of 32,000, which by some definitions is too small to be considered a city.
Gibraltar is a city?
I am American, so low bar, but there are dozens of us.
It’s a city, it’s a really big rock, it’s a maritime port, it’s the only wild monkey population in Europe, it’s a 2½ mi2 British Overseas Territory whose status is perennially contested by Spain.
The New Orleans French Quarter is easy to spot.
Unfortunately, I would guess that school shooter locations are probably the most easily recognised in the US. Uvalde has a population of ~15,000, for instance.
Sandy Hook is ~9,000. You may not remember, but Alex Jones does.
Yeah Alex Jones can rot in hell
OP said famous, not infamous.
💀
Ah yeah, I was going for instantly recognizable
Similar to how more people have heard of Lockerbie than any other Scottish town of 5000 people.
Pueblo, CO from tv commercials or maybe Wala Wala, WA from Bugs Bunny.
Walla Walla, it was also a lyric in an Offspring song.
Also in this song
Witch Doctor - Ooh Eeh Ooh Ah Aah Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang
Pueblo, CO
Mostly because it is (or was) a publication distribution hub.
Virtually no one outside of the US will have heard of it, though.
Forks, Washington population of ~7000 made very notable due to the twilight series. Or Astoria, Oregon population of ~10,000 made famous by the Goonies.
Hallstatt - Austria
The city so beautiful that the Chinese copied it.
For Australia I would go with Snowtown for the bodies in barrels. Or maybe Kendall where William Tyrrell disappeared. Both towns are pretty small.
In the Netherlands is probably Giethoorn, the ‘Venice of the North’ which has many canals instead of roads and is very touristy. It has 2.900 inhabitants
How about: name a country and name the smallest city you recognize from there. Like New Zealand you could say Rotarua
Christ there’s a generation of Brits only know that name because of a pædo 😂
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=SwozMhzTTbs&si=qTeXDDhVFjTMxlv9
Paris. It’s also a city in Texas.
We also have a Paris in Ontario in Canada … nice place next to the water and it even has the Eiffel Tower (painted as a mural on a storefront)
On that note, Paris, Texas is a great movie.
Did anyone fix the roof in the one house in London, Tx yet?
I see you and raise, Las Vegas, NM.
Cairo, IL (Population 1,505)
Pronounced kæro (K air o)
Hmmm
https://blog.txfb-ins.com/texas-travel/european-cities-in-texas/ someone has mapped out the “European” Texas road trip.
Not my location, but Scranton, PA?
Dont live near Pennsylvania at all, but Scranton sounds very familiar .
“The Office”
Also all those bananas.
By population, and not land area, certain more remote geographic places are well known but have quite a low population. ‘Everyone’ is a high bar, but most adults in Australia would know the following places (ordered from smaller population but slightly less known to higher population):
- Wittenoom, WA - population 0 - well known in Australia for being heavily contaminated with dangerous blue asbestos (which used to be mined there until the 60s), and having been de-gazetted and removed from maps to discourage tourism to it.
- Coober Pedy, SA - population 1437 - well known in Australia for its underground homes and opal production.
- Alice Springs, NT - population 25,912 - well known for being near the centre of Australia in the rangelands (outback) - most larger population centres in Australia are coastal.
I reckon Port Arthur is a solid contender with its low population of 251 (known for being the site of a mass shooting that led to significant changes in Australian gun laws). It is fading in name recognition as time goes on though, after all that was approaching 30 years ago and lots of people have been born since then.
My top pick however would be Bega with its population of 5013 and the name recognition the cheese factory has brought. It’s hard to go past a name that’s printed on cheese (and assorted other products now) in the vast majority of supermarkets across Australia, and they even export overseas to get a bit of international cachet.
Winnipeg, Canada (pop. 850k) has a famous namesake in Winnie the Pooh (who was named after Winnipeg) and has been in the Simpsons.
850k isn’t really small though.
It’s still small for a city, especially a capital city. However, it’s bigger than Regina 😄
Your “small city” has more people than 5 US states
It has more people than anywhere that has less people.
Schengen - the village in Luxembourg where the Schengen Agreement was signed. The population was 5196 in 2023 (appears to be the last census quoted on Wikipedia) and the “Schengen Area”, covered by the agreement represents 450m people.
