Ulaanbaatar, Primate City

In developed countries settlements are arranged in a specific, measurable way, and the location of services can be explained by the Central Place Theory. Developing countries don't have the same distribution of settlements and services that developed countries do, and Mongolia is no different. What Mongolia does have is a primate city: the capital, Ulaanbaatar.

the Ulaanbaatar skyline, with ger shanty towns in the foreground

A primate city is one that has at least twice the population of the second largest city in the country. It is the cultural, political, and economic center of the country and people flock to it for the opportunities it presents.

Ulaanbaatar is the only city listed in the World Factbook as a major population center in Mongolia, and indeed, Erdenet, the next most populated city, has approximately 1/13th the number of people as Ulaanbaatar, according to Wikipedia.

Is a primate city bad for a country? After all, England has theirs (London) and so does France (Paris). A primate city isn't necessarily bad, but it is indicative of some kind of imbalance in the economy or a problem of infrastructure. The thing about primate cities is that because they are just so massive and so culturally and politically important, they suck up a lot of money and services and development that could be used to improve rural life and smaller cities (source). 

Next time I'll be posting more about Ulaanbaatar, probably before Thanksgiving. We're in the home stretch now. Thanks for sticking around!