Zipf's Law states that the size of a city is what relationship to its rank?

• A. The size of a city is directly proportional to its rank.
• B. The size of a city is inversely proportional to its rank; the nth largest city is roughly 1/n the size of the largest.
• C. City sizes are uniform across the system.
• D. Population density is independent of rank.

Answer: (B)

Zipf's Law describes a inverse relationship between city size and rank. As you rank cities from largest to smallest, the nth city tends to be about 1/n the size of the largest city. For example, if the largest city has population P, the second-largest is roughly P/2, the third-largest about P/3, and so on. This pattern explains why a few cities are very large while many are much smaller, and it aligns with observed urban distributions in many regions. It’s not a direct proportion to rank, it’s not uniform sizes, and it doesn’t say density is independent of rank, so the inverse proportional relationship best fits what Zipf’s Law describes.