Cities within a radius

"Which cities are within 100 km of here?" comes up when you plan a sales territory, look for a place to live within commuting distance, choose where to hold a meeting, or check how many towns a radio signal or a delivery zone might reach. Search for a town or click anywhere on the map, set the radius, and the circle is drawn on the map with an orange dot for every town inside it. The panel lists them from the nearest to the farthest, each with its country, population, distance and compass direction from the centre, and tells you which is the largest. Raise the minimum population to see only the bigger cities, for example everything over 100,000 people within 500 km. Drag the centre or the handle on the edge of the circle and the list follows. When it is right, copy the names as one line, download them as CSV for a spreadsheet, or as GeoJSON or KML with the circle for a GIS or Google Earth. The share link keeps the centre, the radius and the population filter.

How to use it

1. Search for a town, or click the map where the centre should be.
2. Type the radius and choose kilometres, miles or nautical miles, or drag the round handle on the edge of the circle.
3. Choose a minimum population if you only want larger cities.
4. Read the list, nearest first, then copy the names, download CSV, GeoJSON or KML, or copy the share link.

How accurate is it?

Which places are in the list

The list holds the about 24,000 populated places in GeoNames with at least 15,000 inhabitants: cities, towns and some large suburbs and city districts that GeoNames records as places of their own. Villages and small towns are not included, so in thinly populated areas a circle can be empty even though people live there. The population is the figure GeoNames stores for each place. Depending on the country it describes the city proper or a wider urban area, and its census year varies, so use it to compare sizes, not as an official count.

A town is a point

Each town is one point, usually near its centre or main square. A town is listed when that point lies inside the circle, even if the built-up area reaches beyond the edge, and a town whose centre is just outside is left out although its suburbs reach in. Near the edge of the circle, look at the dots on the map before you rely on the list.

Distances and directions

The circle and every distance are calculated on the WGS84 ellipsoid with GeographicLib, so they are exact between the two points to well under a millimetre, also for a radius of 2,000 km, across the 180° meridian and near the poles. The direction is the initial compass bearing from the centre towards the town along the shortest path.

Good to know

As the crow flies

The radius is a straight-line distance over the surface of the Earth. A town 50 km away on the other side of a fjord, a mountain range or a border without a crossing can be hours away by road. Use the list as a first selection and check travel times separately.

Duplicate-looking names

Large cities can appear together with districts that GeoNames lists separately, and many towns share a name with places in other countries. The country and the distance next to each name show which one it is, and the map shows exactly where it lies.

Very large circles

The radius is limited to 2,000 km. Around a dense region such as the Netherlands, the Ruhr or northern India, a few hundred kilometres already hold more than a thousand towns; the panel shows the nearest 500 and the downloads contain all of them. A higher minimum population keeps the list short.