Start with the score.
Add context as you learn.
Research priority = the published Global Consumer Opportunity score. This edition needs only the released score, country, U.S. market, and source release. All 69 published leads can be explored now.
Community Bridge evidence appears beside each lead. City Population, Country Conversion, and Upstream Match Strength are optional context. They do not block this edition, and we do not add them to G again. G already contains upstream conversion, community, and affinity signals.
Higher G scores appear first. Equal scores share a priority rank; source lead IDs keep their original meaning. This identifies country-to-U.S.-market research priorities. It does not assign every foreign city a compatibility score or measure an existing partnership’s performance.
The earlier five-component international-city model remains available as a separate method. A new global city ranking can follow its own revised definition without holding back this research release.
Download the research-priority method · JSON ↗Understand the question.
Use population to understand a place’s scale within a clearly defined group of cities in the same country. Check the place type and source before you decide what that size means for your project.
Why it matters
Population gives a useful sense of scale. It can help a researcher compare places while remembering that size alone does not establish business fit.
How big is the place you are actually comparing?
Imagine two places share a familiar city name. One record describes a city center; another describes a wider settlement. Their population figures may look very different. First identify the place, then compare its size. A stable place ID and a clear boundary make the number more useful.
Use world city facts to find the place name, country, source population field, and place type. GeoNames includes villages, city sections, and other populated places as well as large cities. A bigger number can suggest scale, but it does not tell you who needs your product. Pair population context with the customer question.
Three steps you can take
- Confirm the city name, country, and GeoNames identifier before comparing records.
- Check whether the figure describes a city record or a metro, and look for a population observation year.
- Ask whether smaller places also offer the buyer, supplier, school, or host you need.
Read the source: GeoNames: field definitions and place types. This reference explains the source or research context; the inventory figures below come from the reviewed NDS package.
Know what you are looking at.
- Symbol
- P
- Identified source
- GeoNames place records
- International-city model weight
- 20%
How the measure is used
Start with a stable city identifier, country identifier, reported population, source date, and an eligible-city rule.
Define which populated-place records qualify within each country before ranking. Handle missing and zero populations explicitly, and publish the comparison set and normalization.
The existing candidate model describes source-covered cities or geographic features. It does not use a metropolitan population unless a separate metro method is adopted.
Available results and rankings
- The worldwide city directory provides GeoNames identifiers, country context, and population facts where the source supplies them.
- The reviewed international-city release reports 1,722 candidate rows. Those candidates are not the whole worldwide city universe, and their complete P values are not connected to this website.
Coverage and limits
- A city or populated-place feature is not automatically a metro area.
- The presence of a GeoNames record does not make that place eligible for an existing Sister City ranking.
Other Sister City components
Commercial Diplomacy Index™ · National Data System · Source and method guide · October 20, 2026