What is often used today is “metropolitan area”. This is less arbitrary than city boundaries, but not as rigorous as your “typical 1 hour from given point”—it boils down to “people pay extra to live somewhat near that conceptual location”. I think the base ranking metric is not very useful, as well. Why do you care about “most populous” or “densest (population over area)”, regardless of definition of location?
Why do you care about “most populous” or “densest (population over area)”, regardless of definition of location?
1) Population density has an important impact on the mileau and opportunities that exist in a given location, but we can only make meaningful comparisons when metrics are standardized. 2) I’ve heard it said that in medieval times, many lords would collect a “bushel” of taxes from the peasants, where the bushel was measured in a large basket, but then when paying a “bushel” of taxes to their king, the bushel would be measured with a much smaller basket, thereby allowing the lord to keep a larger amount of grain for himself. When we don’t have consistent standards for metrics, similar failure modes can arise in (subtler) ways—hence why I find reliance on arbitrary definitions of location to have bad taste
What is often used today is “metropolitan area”. This is less arbitrary than city boundaries, but not as rigorous as your “typical 1 hour from given point”—it boils down to “people pay extra to live somewhat near that conceptual location”. I think the base ranking metric is not very useful, as well. Why do you care about “most populous” or “densest (population over area)”, regardless of definition of location?
1) Population density has an important impact on the mileau and opportunities that exist in a given location, but we can only make meaningful comparisons when metrics are standardized. 2) I’ve heard it said that in medieval times, many lords would collect a “bushel” of taxes from the peasants, where the bushel was measured in a large basket, but then when paying a “bushel” of taxes to their king, the bushel would be measured with a much smaller basket, thereby allowing the lord to keep a larger amount of grain for himself. When we don’t have consistent standards for metrics, similar failure modes can arise in (subtler) ways—hence why I find reliance on arbitrary definitions of location to have bad taste