Project: Central Place Theory

PROJECT: CENTRAL PLACE THEORY Research on central place theory was conducted by Brian Berry in the U.S. Midwest, especially in Iowa. The purpose of this project is to determine the extent to which the hierarchy of settlements in Iowa still conforms to central place theory.

 Below is a list of the 25 largest cities in Iowa. The population is for the county in which the city is located, from the 1990 Census.

Rank City County Population 1 Des Moines Polk 327,140

2 Cedar Rapids Linn 168,767

3 Davenport Scott 150,973

4 Waterloo Black Hawk 123,798

5 Sioux City Woodbury 98,276

6 Iowa City Johnson 96,119

7 Dubuque Dubuque 86,403

8 Council Bluffs Pottawattamie 82,628

9 Ames Story 74,252

10 Clinton Clinton 51,040

11 Mason City Carro Gordo 46,733

12 Burlington Des Moines 42,614 13 Fort Dodge Webster 40,342

14 Muscatine Muscatine 39,907

15 Keokuk Lee 38,687

16 Marshalltown Marshall 38,276

17 Indianola Warren 36,033

18 Ottumwa Wapello 35,696

19 Newton Jasper 34,795

20 Knoxville Marion 30,001

21 Sioux Orange 29,903

22 Boone Boone 25,186

23 LeMars Plymouth 23,388

24 Waverly Bremer 22,813

25 Spencer Clay 17,585

1. On the map of Iowa draw a circle around the dots representing settlements with a population over 80,000. How many are there? ______2. Divide the state into 8 irregularly shaped circles, with the 8 largest cities as close as possible to the center of the circle. The 8 irregularly shaped circles should not overlap each other. These represent the market areas for the 8 largest cities. 3. Measure the approximate distance in miles of the radius of the circle drawn around Des Moines. ______4. Are the irregularly shaped circles about the same size throughout the state, or do the sizes differ in different parts of the state? ______5. Why are the market areas in the eastern part of the state smaller? ______6. To what extent do cities in Iowa follow the rank-size distribution? ______