Asklemmy

By population, and not land area, certain more remote geographic places are well known but have quite a low population. 'Everyone' is a high bar, but most adults in Australia would know the following places (ordered from smaller population but slightly less known to higher population):

• Wittenoom, WA - population 0 - well known in Australia for being heavily contaminated with dangerous blue asbestos (which used to be mined there until the 60s), and having been de-gazetted and removed from maps to discourage tourism to it.
• Coober Pedy, SA - population 1437 - well known in Australia for its underground homes and opal production.
• Alice Springs, NT - population 25,912 - well known for being near the centre of Australia in the rangelands (outback) - most larger population centres in Australia are coastal.

Nokia, Finland, population 36,000. Cellphones, tyres, rubber boots, ...

iThe City of London might be one, it has a very small resident population, but I dont know how many people know that it is a separate city from London. It's famos for being chock full of c*nts most of the day.

Unfortunately, I would guess that school shooter locations are probably the most easily recognised in the US. Uvalde has a population of ~15,000, for instance.

Not my country, but maybe Tipperary? It only has a population of 5k.

I think people really overestimate how much everybody knows about the US.

I'd say there's a large population that only know NYC, LA, and Chicago.

Chornobyl, Ukraine. "50 thousand people used to live here, now it's a ghost town"

There are many more ghost towns now, due to the war. Adviivka, Bakhmut and many others, some small, some relatively big. Everyone has heard of those small cities.

Gibraltar has a population of 32,000, which by some definitions is too small to be considered a city.

For France it's probably Vichy, infamously well known internationally for being the capital of the French pro-Nazi government during the Occupation. Only 25'000 inhabitants.

Edit: I just realised the question was recognising the name of the city, not recognising city based on a picture...

Probably Svolvær/Lofoten with a population of ~4700. It doesn't have the official status of "City" in Norway though.

I legitimately though Oregon was a State, I didn't know it was also a city.

From my country I'm going to be generous and say Barcelona. Second biggest city here. I doubt next bigger cities are universally known.

Not my location, but Scranton, PA?

For Mexico, maybe Tecate, which is a city in the state of Baja California, and its know for a beer of the same name. Cant really think of anything that is smaller and more famous.

Paris. It's also a city in Texas.

Dildo, Newfoundland.

Not really though.

Off the top of my head I’d say places like Gander, Churchill, Iqaluit - places known maybe for their location as much as their people and unique situations?

Edit: another comment (Aspen) made me want to mention Banff but Alberta isn’t acting Canadian anymore so it no longer counts.

The village "Wacken" is well known in Germany because they hold one of the worlds largest anual Heavy-Metal festivals. They have a population of around 2000, the festival regularly attracts around 80,000 people.

I'm not from there, but who doesn't know the name of Scunthorpe?

Hell, Michigan

I guess the one that pretty much everyone knows in Germany is Buxtehude. It is being used as the poster child for a backwards town, far away from cities. Which is funny because neither is it backwards, remote or even very small. With a population of 40k it’s relatively large, compared to many other places in Germany, even just right next to Buxtehude. It is not far from Hamburg and its historic core is worth a visit. I think the name itself is the reason why it is being made fun of so much. Though there are so many other, much quirkier named towns in Germany but it somehow became Buxtehude.

In Denmark it's probably Snave (No English Wikipedia page for it). Population is a whopping 211 people. It was popularized in a series of commercials for a Danish cellular carrier. The concept was so popular that there even was a movie. I haven't seen it, but the reviews seems to suggest it could be fun to watch... If you are drunk enough.

The word "snave" in Danish can somewhat be translated to snogging in English. Heavy kissing. Which has led to the city having massive problems with theft of their signs.

It might not count as a city but Nome Alaska has the Iditarod with only, 3700 people. Or maybe some famous battlefield, Gettysburg has 7100 people. A ski resort like Aspen could count with 7000. We all had to memorize state capitals so maybe somewhere like Montpelier, Vermont has more recognition but has 7800 people.