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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
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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

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[-] t_378@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

I think the trick with compiling such a metric is defining it, and it's intended purpose. You've got one: compare the city of commoners to city of wealthy people. Or maybe a rich town locator.

With apartments, you get the sq. ft. of the dwelling, but there's also common areas. None of it being owned by the residents, merely rented. Contrast that with farm land, you'd have relatively few people with high amount of "owned land".

Sometimes very rich people choose to rent in ultra luxury apartments.

I wonder if part of the metric is something like, $ value of land / sq. ft. that is privately owned? Someone in Nebraska maybe owns 50 acres of land that is relatively low demand, versus say... a guy who owns a few golf courses in expensive areas.

this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2026
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