text: In the UK a city has to either have a cathedral or it's granted city status by Royal Charter. London has 2 cities - the City of London (St Paul's Cathedral, and only about 1 sq mile in size) and the City of Westminster (Westminster Abbey). I seem to recall there was a lot of debating in the 1980's about which town should be "upgraded" to city status. In the US it is incorporated and can be any size - I lived in a "city" of only 3,500 in Florida!