City proper

A city proper is the geographical area contained within city limits. The term proper is not exclusive to cities; it can describe the geographical area within the boundaries of any given locality. The United Nations defines the term as "... the single political jurisdiction which contains the historical city centre." City proper is one of the three basic concepts used to define urban areas and populations. The other two are urban agglomeration, and the metropolitan area. In some countries, city limits that act as the demarcation for the city proper are drawn very widely, while in others they are drawn very narrowly. This can cause substantial confusion when the legal boundaries of a city do not align with what most people intuitively think of as part of a city. For example, Miami proper has a population of 442,000 people—less than Fresno, California—but the wider Miami metropolitan area is the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the United States, including more than 6.1 million people.