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.
Edit: I just realised the question was recognising the name of the city, not recognising city based on a picture…
Probably Svolvær/Lofoten with a population of ~4700. It doesn’t have the official status of “City” in Norway though.
Well, Brazil is such a huge country and there are lots of smallest cities with still huge population.
Unfornately i would have to say that the smallest one and most famous would probably be because of some recent disaster and one I can remember is Brumadinho. Less than 40k people, a city destroyed after a dam collapsed and a lot of mud flooded everywhere, 5 years ago
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.
Not my country, but what immediately came to mind was one that has global name recognition, and minimal population: Chernobyl.
It used to have around 12,000 population, but now it’s technically illegal to live nearby, and up to 150 people are estimated to live there today. It’s famous for being toxically irradiated as a result of the worst nuclear disaster in human history
Not my country, but maybe Tipperary? It only has a population of 5k.
All I know about it is that it’s a long way there.
iThe City of London might be one, it has a very small resident population, but I dont know how many people know that it is a separate city from London. It’s famos for being chock full of c*nts most of the day.
Wacken, Germany.
Population: 2110
Home to one of the biggest metal festivals in the world with something between 70k and 120k people. I think Tickets are limited to 70k currently but the whole area is bascially transformed for a week
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.
The village “Wacken” is well known in Germany because they hold one of the worlds largest anual Heavy-Metal festivals. They have a population of around 2000, the festival regularly attracts around 80,000 people.
Nokia, Finland, population 36,000. Cellphones, tyres, rubber boots, …
I’d try Bodom, population 0, if other than cities are allowed.
Or possibly Santa’s village, population 2 (if you exclude the elves)
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.
In Denmark it’s probably Snave (No English Wikipedia page for it). Population is a whopping 211 people. It was popularized in a series of commercials for a Danish cellular carrier. The concept was so popular that there even was a movie. I haven’t seen it, but the reviews seems to suggest it could be fun to watch… If you are drunk enough.
The word “snave” in Danish can somewhat be translated to snogging in English. Heavy kissing. Which has led to the city having massive problems with theft of their signs.
Chornobyl, Ukraine. “50 thousand people used to live here, now it’s a ghost town”
There are many more ghost towns now, due to the war. Adviivka, Bakhmut and many others, some small, some relatively big. Everyone has heard of those small cities.
Hallstatt - Austria
The city so beautiful that the Chinese copied it.
In Slovenia I believe Sevnica (4.5k population) - home town of Melania Trump - would be the smallest most recognizable place by the world.
But Slovenia is small enough even Kostanjevica na Krki with 802 or Vače with 421 population is easily recognizable by Slovenians.
