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Twin Cities

Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time.

There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in status and size, though not necessarily equal; a city and a substantially smaller suburb would not typically qualify, even if they were once separate. Tri-cities and quad cities are similar phenomena involving three or four municipalities.

Twin Cities
High-rise buildings in Minneapolis's Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, with the Downtown Saint Paul skyline visible in the background. Minneapolis' city limits border those of Saint Paul, the capital of Minnesota. From Downtown Minneapolis to Downtown Saint Paul is only 10 miles in length. This gave birth to the nickname of the region, the "Twin Cities" metropolitan area.
Twin Cities
A view of the town of Tornio (Finland), which forms a twin city with Haparanda (Sweden)

A common – but not universal – scenario is two cities that developed concurrently on opposite sides of a river. For example, Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Minnesota – one of the most widely known pairs of "Twin Cities" – were founded several miles apart on opposite sides of the Mississippi River, and competed for prominence as they grew.

In some cases, twin cities are separated by a state border, such as Albury (New South Wales) and Wodonga (Victoria) in Australia, on opposite sides of the Murray River. Islamabad and Rawalpindi are the twin cities of Pakistan; Islamabad is the Federal Territory of Pakistan, while Rawalpindi is a city in the Punjab province. Cities on opposite sides of international borders sometimes share enough cultural and historical identity to be seen as twins, such as Haparanda (Sweden) and Tornio (Finland), Leticia (Colombia) and Tabatinga (Brazil), or Valga (Estonia) and Valka (Latvia).

In some cases twin cities eventually merge into a single legal municipality, such as Buda and Pest merging in 1873 into Budapest, Hungary; Brooklyn being annexed by New York City in 1898; or the three ancient cities of Hankou, Hanyang, and Wuchang joining in 1927 into Wuhan, China.

As a single urban area, twin cities may share an airport whose airport codes include both cities' initials, e.g., DFW (Dallas–Fort Worth), LBA (Leeds–Bradford), MSP (Minneapolis–Saint Paul), RDU (Raleigh and Durham), and CAK (Akron–Canton).

Examples

Twin Cities 
Cross-border example of twin cities: Plaza Internacional of the Frontera de la Paz. On the left, Santana do Livramento (Brazil); on the right, Rivera (Uruguay).

Africa

Egypt

Ghana

Zambia / Zimbabwe

South Africa

International

North America

Canada

United States

International

Examples, sharing names or similar names, across an international border include:

Pairs with unrelated names:

Historic

South America

Argentina

Brazil

Chile

Peru

Venezuela

Asia

Current

International

Historic

Europe

Current

International

Historic

Oceania

Tri-cities

Quad cities

More than four cities

Examples of cities formed by amalgamation

Asia

    China
    India
    Japan
    • Fukuoka in Japan, a city of 1.4 million people, formerly the twin cities of Hakata and Fukuoka until the late 19th century.
    • Kitakyushu in Japan, a city of 900,000 people, created in 1963 by the merger of Yahata, Kokura, Moji, Wakamatsu, and Tobata. Yahata and Kokura had formerly been major cities in their own right.
    • Saitama in Japan, a city of 1.2 million people, created in 2001 by the merger of the cities of Urawa, Omiya, Yono, and later Iwatsuki. Urawa and Omiya could formerly have been considered twin cities.
    Pakistan
    • Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan, has been expanded to include smaller towns including Rawat in its territory.
    • Lahore, the second largest city of Pakistan, has, as of 2013, grown out so much that small towns by this giant city, such as Shahdara, have been absorbed in its city limits.
    Taiwan
    • The former cities of Taoyuan and Zhongli, Taiwan, which merged along with the entire county in 2014 to form a single municipality city of Taoyuan, the two cities sit directly next to each other and shares almost the same population.
    Thailand
    • Bangkok, the capital and largest city of Thailand, was created in 1971, when the previous Bangkok province (Phra Nakhon) was merged with Thonburi province.
    Vietnam
    • The cities of Saigon and Cholon merged in 1931 to form a single city named Saigon-Cholon; in 1956, the name Cholon was dropped and the city became known as Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam.

Europe

North America

Fictional twin cities

See also

Notes

Tags:

Twin Cities ExamplesTwin Cities Tri-citiesTwin Cities Quad citiesTwin Cities More than four citiesTwin Cities Examples of cities formed by amalgamationTwin Cities Fictional twin citiesTwin CitiesCityConurbationQuad Cities (disambiguation)Tri-Cities (disambiguation)

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