78
There must be a city with the highest amount of floorspace per person, but nobody seems interested enough to compile that list (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 days ago by FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Like we have "largest city" lists,

  • most people would think largest city means most populous,
  • but some people interpret it as city area,
  • so in the former case Mexico City would be the "Largest" city in North america
  • in the latter case, LA would be (i haven't fact checked these, just roll with it)

Some cities are really populous, like Hong Kong, and it means people settle for very little living space just to have access to the opportunities there. Cities grow big largely on the basis of this principle - how many people are willing to slum it in one place together? And historically, the rich have done the opposite; when peasants are cramming themselves into as small a space as possible, the rich are building homes larger than entire villages.

So, to contrast a city of commoners and a city of wealthy people, one effective metric would be to look at the average footage (floor area) of peoples' homes. Ideally divided by how many people there are, to have it on a per person basis.

I bet the results would be interesting. We'd find loads of places we didn't know the names of, little hideaway towns which serve as getaways for the wealthy

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 17 points 3 days ago

How about Pripyat? Abandoned city near cernobyl, so dividing by population gives NaN.

[-] wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io 3 points 3 days ago

Fukushima is likely high up on the list too.
Outside of nuclear waste zones, I’d imagine factory towns where most of the work has become automated that also have an Amazon warehouse and a data center would be high up there too. So like, all of Ohio.

[-] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

That could be highest or lowest simultaneously, depending on how you look at it. Technically, NaN is the correct answer, so you can’t really apply this logic to any place with a zero population.

this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2026
78 points (98.8% liked)

Showerthoughts

44042 readers
322 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
vatlark@lemmy.world
forkball@lemmy.world
SuperEars@lemmy.world