Brokelynne@reddit

Yes, this. There are people in Bay Ridge / Dyker Heights / Bensonhurst, Brooklyn who not only barely leave their 2-mile area, they're oddly proud of not knowing how to navigate the subway or get around Manhattan. Conversely, once when I was taking the subway back from the end of the Brooklyn Half [Marathon], which ends at Coney Island, there were Manhattan residents having a very loud conversation about them not knowing where they were.

They go to Queens for the US Open tennis for Mets games and when flying out of LGA if they aren't using their PJ.

473713@reddit

I went to college in the Midwest, where I'm from, and my first year roommate was a girl from a NYC suburb. She had never seen the STARS before. When we walked around together at night, she was amazed. She told me she used to think there were like four or five stars in the whole sky.

So it's not just land distance that confuses these people. It's the whole world outside of NYC.

I have to admit I only went to NYC once in my life and I left as soon as possible. I found it terrifying and ended up crying in the subway because I could not figure out how to get out the way I got in. So it goes both ways. I have no regrets about not going back though. I would prefer to see the whole sky with all the stars to being in a subway

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02meepmeep@reddit

I mean, Buffalo & Toronto are pretty big though.

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SabresBills69@reddit

New York City from Buffalo is a long 8 hr drive+ traffic. buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse,Mal any are 1 million+ metro areas that have anything you need. going to New York City would be a special trip to see museums if some sports. modt places are 2 hrs from those 4 cities, nyc, or Montreal. there are only a few places that are outside 2 hrs one way.

i went to Toronto many times as a kid. it’s a 2 hr drive so it can be done as a long day trip.

growing up in Buffalo we would get bus loads of Canadian shoppers coming to buy things that were cheaper

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EvilestHarry@reddit

Yeah , i'm from a hick town in central texas and we were always driving to dallas.

I never went until the high school field trip my freshman year. The only "city" nearby was Albany.

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Fun-Dragonfly-4166@reddit

i live real close to Washington, DC. It is the next neighborhood over. I rarely leave my neigborhood.

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cooking2recovery@reddit

Same is true in eastern Washington and Oregon. People will have visited Spokane, Boise, and maybe Missoula or SLC. But they won’t cross the cascades to Seattle or Portland.

They might spend a couple years on campus in a 60k college town or even Spokane, and then move back to wherever they came from and consider that knowing what it’s like to live in a “city”.

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MaybeNotTheCIA@reddit

That’s me. My wife and I can’t figure anything we would need from Seattle that we can’t get in Spokane except maybe a level 1 trauma center and I hope we never need that. Nothing against it, there just doesn’t seem to be a need. I think people used to travel to the big cities more for shopping but now you can get anything from anywhere in the world delivered out to us in BFE within a short time frame

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jbochsler@reddit

And Boise hardly qualifies as a large city by any metric.

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Only-Candy1092@reddit

Theres a lot of people who spend their whole lives living in more rural areas or smaller cities. It also does depend on your definition of what a large city is, i think. Ive lived in several cities of various sizes. Largest being Portland OR. I grew up with a city that currently hass about 150k less people, definitely still a decent sized city.

I don’t know about Costco but Cheyenne has a Menard’s that I’ve driven from CO to go to lol

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JasperStrat@reddit

Rural Washington people driving to Portland

As a lifelong Vancouver resident this makes almost no sense to me. I live 2 miles from one of the shopping centers based around avoiding sales tax like this and I've made exactly one trip to do it in ~8 years and it was to buy multiple TVs after a move. Unless you are spending like $500+ it isn't even worth an extra 10-15 minute drive and it would have to be a $2000+ purchase for any rural area to actually do it unless you consider Camas rural.

But seeing the reference still makes me chuckle.

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Skithiryx@reddit

I assumed they meant like Centralia, Chehalis and all the little towns near Mt. St. Helens.

IAD isn't in Arlington and if someone was flying into IAD on a brief stopover and had a friend in Arlington there's a strong chance they wouldn't be seeing that friend. They're close enough but not that close. Now DCA, maybe.

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StasRutt@reddit

Right? IAD to Arlington is half an hour on a good day

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manokpsa@reddit

I took multiple wrong turns while I was visiting DC a long time ago. I ended up in the parking lot at the Pentagon twice.

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Pficky@reddit

But black people live in DC....

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PJSeeds@reddit

That's the dynamic with rural people and every city. Everyone in my dad's small town is terrified of Philadelphia and hate everything about it. They live an hour and a half away and never, ever go there. If you talk to them about it for more than a minute it becomes incredibly clear that to them Philly = black people, and there's nothing more to their fear and hatred.

What counts as a large city is always a moving target, but there is a sizable minority of people ive met in North Dakota that had never made it to Fargo or Bismarck. Many had no interest or intention of ever seeing Minneapolis or Winnipeg.

South Dakota and Wyoming they seemed to be even more common with never having been to the local "big city".

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McDonnellDouglasDC8@reddit

When I was in college, my Minot friends didn't want to drive in Minneapolis. They'd drive to a friend's house in its suburbs and carpool in.

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BjornAltenburg@reddit

I knew someone from jamestown that would do that for Fargo. The "big dangerous city" of Fargo. Multiple people were terrified of driving on main or Broadway like it was a death highway or something.

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Deep_Joke3141@reddit

I grew up in a town of 8K in ND. The nearest town with more than 10K was about 2 hours away. The nearest town with more than 50K was Fargo, and this was 7 hours away. I considered Fargo a “city” and recall being nervous to drive there, with all the multi-lane one way roads. No that I’ve been around, I would consider Chicago and NYC big cities, GR and Fargo not so much.

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BjornAltenburg@reddit

The most dangerous aspect of driving in Fargo is the mix of rural and Urban driving culutre. But compared to Atlanta or Chicago, Fargo is pretty safe and slow.

Crayshack@reddit

Michigan is a big state and has some very rural areas.

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toastythewiser@reddit

Yeah, what's a large city? Certain parts of the USA don't have those...

According to the census bureau, Salt Lake City has a slightly larger metropolitan area than Grand Rapids. It also just has more "big city" vibes. It has a more impressive skyline, more rail transit, etc.

SLC: 1,257,936

I’m from the twin cities and have made many a road trip to the Traverse City area to visit family— through Wisconsin, the UP and across the Mackinac bridge. My aunt is from Holland originally and it makes so much sense to me that you called it the Bible Belt of Michigan. lol explains a lot

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lisasimpsonfan@reddit

you’re not going to the wicked big city,especially Detroit since most Michiganders are too scared to go there (hey I live here now, from the lower lower southwest side originally). We all grew up hearing about the riots and seeing the decay on television with stories about crime. It’s not that bad

That's sad because I have always liked Detroit and the surrounding areas. You have a top notch art museum, Belle island and of course the Henry Ford museum right there in Dearborn. Sure you have crime and bad areas but I never had an issue.

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burningmanonacid@reddit

Yeah, the rest of the country underestimates how rural upper Michigan is. It was an eight hour drive to the nearest hospital that was more than one floor and could care for my health at the time I was up there. That's because it was winter and there's no freeways in the UP except what runs straight through the Soo into Canada, so yo go West, you are cut off from internet and have to drive a highwayish road which gets sketchy. I had to drive to Grand Rapids (where I am from) instead since that was less snowy and I might as well go home if I am driving that far. I would leave at 3am Monday morning to get to my 9am classes. Lol.

There's actually been some major concern here for the rural populations never leaving their area. Jobs are drying up, so it is harder to leave but there's not much to stay for either.

I imagine this is increasingly the case in many rural places in the US. It is hard to move that far away from everything and culturally, it may even be quite different even though its the same state.

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Ceorl_Lounge@reddit

It shouldn't. There's a pervasive "everything I need in the universe is with 100 miles of my door" in a big chunk of the state. In fairness it IS a great place to live, but no it isn't the sum total of human existence.

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Cerulean_IsFancyBlue@reddit

That attitude is not unique to the United States and not even all that modern. You can read about people in imperial Russia, or medieval England, who never went beyond the market town. Some of them might have one fond memory of the time they got conscripted into the militia or accompanied a relative on a pilgrimage or something.

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MistakeIndividual690@reddit

I mean all of those are megacities

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AromaticStrike9@reddit

It’s not high up there (42nd in metro areas), but at 1.5m I’d count it.

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Asleep-Assistant-269@reddit

Do you mean by land area? It's number 42 by population.

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Inside-Try-394@reddit

Small farm with animals maybe plus parents that didn’t like city treats.

legal_bagel@reddit

That's cool, I posted without my readers. 40yo eyes are a thing.

I grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, so never going to a big city blows my mind. We would leave the city to go to places where people may have never left their county.

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AdmJota@reddit

They said "county", not "country".

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yellowlinedpaper@reddit

When my dad was in the army he went to Russia in the 90s with other teams and some diplomats. Some of the diplomats went pretty deep into Russia and talked to the locals. One place they went they met an older gentleman who had never traveled further than 3/4 mile from his home and everyone thought WWII was still happening.

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adudeguyman@reddit

Reminds me of this Japanese soldier that did not believe WW2 was over and fought on an island from 1944 to 1974 because he was following orders from 1944 to 1974 not surrender.

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Schnelt0r@reddit

There was a joke in Three's Company about the lawn or whatever being so overgrown "there are Japanese in there who don't know the war is over."

The Irish would get a kick out of Talking To Americans then. It was a Canadian comedy segment where they pretended to be a news crew to get Americans' reaction to made-up news about Canada. Some of the best bits include:

Canada legalizes VCRs
Canada finishes building a dome to shade the National Igloo (which is where their legislature works) from global warming
Canada euthanizes the elderly by setting them adrift on ice floes

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Adventurous-Time5287@reddit

(or so he claimed)

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ThisIsPureTrash@reddit

I live like 10-15 from a pretty decent beach. Have for 15 years in California. Have never gone to it once. I see it and drive by it going to places, but going to the beach sounds awful.

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MetalEnthusiast83@reddit

He was having a laugh at their expense.

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baweiss44@reddit

Airports are largely in big cities. If one doesn’t go to big cities, they simply aren’t traveling in any meaningful way.

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ghost_tdk@reddit

This. I have been to a few big cities, but I don't really care for them. I do, on the other hand, love being out in nature. I won't go out of my way to visit a city. I will go out of my way to visit a lake or a mountain or the ocean.

Lower income people who live more than a few hours drive from a city - which is a lot of Americans - may not have ventured out.

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NotherOneRedditor@reddit

Wyoming. The largest city in Wyoming is around 65,250 people.

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alicelestial@reddit

god, i grew up in a town with about that many people in california, and we were considered rural hillbillies to everyone else in the state essentially. wyoming scares me

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abc123therobot@reddit

Yes many rural Americans are surprisingly wealthy. But they spend money on their McMansion, plus a cabin, a fleet of vehicles, a boat, an RV, etc.

It might be a dual-income, like an electrician and nurse, and there might be some generational wealth as well. Upper middle class but sticking to a pretty narrow band of human experience.

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CycadelicSparkles@reddit

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Blossom73@reddit

Also, how much of an impact on my life buffaloes were

Sounds like the guy has never even left the US. That's pretty sheltered.

As a continent-spanning country, travelling to other states within the US is equivalent to Europeans travelling to other countries within Europe (in terms of actual travel times, costs, etc.). Is a European who never left their continent also living a "pretty sheltered" life?

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Advanced-Event-571@reddit

in general europeans tend to be better educated and a lot more knowledeable about world news, geo-politics, geography, etc. and with better sources. a lot of americans literally get all of their knowledge about the world from fox news and reddit. i certainly wouldn't consider everyone who is not well traveled sheltered though.

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kerelberel@reddit

fox news and reddit

Ehhh, today's young people here in Europe also get their news from their favorite instagram channel or whatever.

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ShortRasp@reddit

I'm American. I've lived in or visited 49 states in the US and 17 countries spanning from South America, Europe, and Asia (have yet to get to Africa). Traveling is definitely amazing and I love it and yes being curious is one of my things about me. But that sentiment and ability to travel isn't shared by many other Americans. Is it sad? Kinda. Do I wish more traveled especially overseas? Yes.

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Advanced-Event-571@reddit

For me the most eye opening was traveling to the middle east because i finally realized everything i learned from american media was a lie and lots of lessons about life and kindness and love and community. i like to think if more could do that we would not be so supportive of bombing people we've dehumanized just because of where they were born or their government.

I didn't travel until later in life and I thought America was the center of the world until then so it opened my eyes a lot. travel isn't even necessary, just helpful. if we would stop believing everything the government and media tell us and question more, that's half the battle.

i travel as cheaply as possible and give up other things to do it (cars, tv, etc), i know everyone has differernt priorities

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pappapirate@reddit

Both this dude's replies here are just really weird. Not sure why they're so obsessed with the idea of traveling being the opposite of sheltered.

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Sounds like the guy has never even left the US. That's pretty sheltered.

A lot of Americans can't afford to travel outside of the United States. I wouldn't call that sheltered. It's a privilege to get to travel outside the United States assuming it's not something like living on the border of Mexico, and driving over the border.

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jbochsler@reddit

Traveling is a privilege. But Americans manage to find the time and resources to attend pro sports and make multi-day trips to Disneyland so traveling overseas is doable with different priorities.

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Blossom73@reddit

But Americans manage to find the time and resources to attend pro sports and make multi-day trips to Disneyland

Some do. Many don't.

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Advanced-Event-571@reddit

I definitely agree it's a privilege.

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ijuinkun@reddit

But seriously, it is over a thousand dollars per person just for the airplane ticket to go to Europe or Asia.

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Blossom73@reddit

Yes, or close to it. My adult kids and I visited London a few years ago. It was $930 a piece for our flights, flying economy, with a layover.

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Blossom73@reddit

It's tiring when foreigners can't comprehend just how big the US actually is.

Thank you!! I agree.

I'm in Ohio. Cleveland, which is at the northernmost border of Ohio, and Cincinnati, which is at the southernmost border of Ohio, are the same distance as that between London and Paris.

And given how car dependent the United States is, it would be much easier and faster for me to travel from London to Paris than from Cleveland to Cincinnati. Especially since I can't drive.

given how car dependent the United States is, it would be much easier and faster for me to travel from London to Paris than from Cleveland to Cincinnati. Especially since I can't drive.

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Southern_Leg_8176@reddit

I’ve known some suburbanites who couldn’t find their way to downtown.

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Normal_Snow3293@reddit

I moved to Maine in my 20s and was surprised to meet people my age who had never left the state. Not even to go to Boston 2 hours away. Also worked with somebody there who had never experienced a revolving door. Went to a meeting in an office building in Portland and casually walked through the revolving door. Got through and looked back to see her standing outside trying to figure out the timing so she wouldn’t get clobbered by the door.

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Castronautik@reddit

I grew up in a rural area, spent most of my adult life in a mid sized city. I'll say 'large cities' are expensive, you get your moneys worth by not going to them. Hotels cost more, entertainment costs more, you have to pay for parking. I didn't start visiting large cities until around my 30s, and growing up not around them I usually find them to be less desirable and it has to be a real special event to get me to go to them.

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sajatheprince@reddit

I'm a born and raised Bostonian. I've been to Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and more. Boston, is not a large city.

The amount of people, seemingly from the mountains, that are amazed and perplexed by things in Boston absolutely bewilders me.

My uncle’s neighbor in his apartment building is exactly this. She’s in her 70s and has never left the 5 boroughs.

a majority of Americans live within a 2 hr drive from a major metro area of 250,000+.

thus days is easily available because places defined as metro areas are concentrated areas of 50,000 ot more people

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NecessaryPopular1@reddit

Good assumption since a clear majority of American people (~86%) live in metropolitan areas, and nearly 60% live specifically in ‘mega-metros’ of 1 million+ pop.

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rando24183@reddit

Apparently the Grand Rapids metropolitan area is more than a million people. So....sounds like OP's definition of "big city" might be "city that I've personally heard of through media", not an objective measure.

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bass679@reddit

Detroit is a special case. It had for many years a very bad reputation. Not only that but for most folks here when you say Detroit they mean literally the City of Detroit, but the metro area.

My wife grew up in metro Detroit and has said many times that she only went to Detroit once before she was 20 despite literally living in the metro area.

That being said, I grew up in a ruralish area in Utah. Brigham City specifically. Once for a field trip we went to see the Utah symphony, roughly a 1 hour drive. We were 16 or 17 and a couple kids were excited because they had, "never been that far from home before." I was kinda shocked.

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SabresBills69@reddit

I grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo ( north side about midway between Buffalo and Niagara Falls).

my dad worked in the city at one of the schools. the only times I went into the city was…

1 my dads mom lived in north Buffalo ( Italian are) as did his sister

went to the hospitals/ dr ofguces

3 for Sabres or AAA baseball game or concert.

the only time I’d travel south of aline that went east/ west from downtown Buffalo was for bills games and a friend lived near the stadium. the airport and a major mall was north of that line. other timed id cross that line was for farther south places

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stratusmonkey@reddit

I'd suspect somebody from Michigan, but outside the Detroit metro area, would end up in Chicago before Detroit

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WoodlandWizard77@reddit

My parents have lived in New York State my entire life in a town of ten thousand people. They'd never been to NYC until I had a medical problem this past summer. They'd been to places like Buffalo and Cleveland and my dad has even been to Tokyo, but it's pretty common to not leave your little bubble in the states

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PotatoSpirit007@reddit

Some people just never feel the need that is all. I grew up in a large city, but made the decision to go and live in small towns since my early 20s. Sure I still visit large cities, but never really enjoyed the crowds and rush.

Using the IKEA rule, the closest city to me is about 2 hours away. Plenty of people don’t have reasons to go 2 hrs away if everyone they know is local.

The largest city i have been to for area I guess was 319 square miles but the population was about 500k.

When I visit a bigger city I feel like I can’t breathe after a short time because of all the noise, people, cars, buildings and I am so happy to leave. I have never had any desire to visit or live in somewhere like New York City.

You don’t know someone’s finances or life story just because of what kind of camping gear they have. Could’ve been a gift, bought second hand or they are newly successful after years of not being so. Maybe they do not like cities.

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WNCsurvivor@reddit

I live in the mountains of WNC . A good friend of mine is 72 and lived here all his life. The only other state he has been to is Tennessee ( it’s only an hour away) he has never seen the ocean or flew in an airplane. Charlotte is 2 hours away, he has never been there

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Vorathian_X@reddit

I visited some friends in Nebraska a few months ago....met a few of my buddies friends while there.

People were interested in my story...born/raised in Los Angeles and currently living in London...blah, blah, blah.

I had one guy say he born in Columbus, Nebraska and has never been more than 70 miles from home and his wife confirmed it.

70 FUCKING MILES!!

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Ok_Guard7639@reddit

A lot of rural Americans are just super far from a city and maybe can't afford to travel. I grew up rural and impoverished with a big family, we never went on vacation or traveled and neither did anyone else in my area. I visited my first city when I was in my 20s on my own.

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Thin-Telephone2240@reddit

42

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Impossible_Turn_7627@reddit

America is BIG. If you're not into it, you can avoid small or large cities as you wish.

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probridgedweller@reddit

I know plenty of people from my hometown who will never experience the city, even though it’s 2 hrs away.

They don’t have money. Traveling there with what vehicle? What would they do when they get there? Spend more money? Buy a $10 meal for $35.98?

So they just went to a random location and came home with -$300… they would rather buy some hot dogs and drinks to have some buddies over.

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ExultantGitana@reddit

Some thoughts: I'm guessing there are places in your country where you've not been but most tourists feel it's a "got to go." And the US is giant so it's harder to see all the places others may think we should. Also, a viewpoint here, in certain areas of the US, the "big city" is small compared to other areas of the US. Last, some people have a discomfort with spending time in big cities and really love rural or outbacking life.

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send2steph@reddit

I mean, unless I have a specific reason to, I don't go to a bigger city. Traffic and too many people. I grew up near Chicago, so I went there from time to time. I live down in Central Illinois now. I'm in my 50s and raised my kids here and was a stay at home mom. Many of the other moms who are from here and grew up in this rural area avoided the bigger cities and felt uncomfortable driving in the traffic. Consequently, some of their kids were actually afraid of big city traffic. This kept them from ever venturing to the bigger cities on their own. In general, Gen z kids (now young adults) seem a lot more timid and less willing to take risks and explore than we were as Gen X kids. When I was in high school, my friends and I would go "into the city", or up to Great America, or even up into WI to concerts at Alpine Valley. 2-3 hour drives.

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SabresBills69@reddit

Many in the country don’t. Folks in Michigan might have done a trip to Detroit or Chicago.

many don’t travel much. Thry might drive 2 hrs or so fir day trips and might go a little farther like 4-6 hrs for a few nights A lot of it depends on how far family is away from you.

of course flying thru or passing through doesn’t count.

my life before 25 growing up in buffalo area…trips I made.

family drove to Toronto multiple times. It’s a 2 hr day trip away. We drive to places within about 2 hrs in NY multiple times
in the mid 1970s we did a drive down to cape canaveral area to visit momsvparrnts. We were there for a week. On the way down we stopped and visited my moms sister in Atlanta,
in mid 1980s over christmas we went to vist my moms family in Houston. Her mom moved there after grandpa died where another sister lived.

4 in mid 1980s we did a summer trip to sed DC

5 in the mid 1980s we did a trip to the andorondack mts. My brother has a summer camp in that area at Clarkson.

I was too young to remember 2 other trips . After I was born my mom flew down to Florida with me to see her parents and we did a trip the year Disney world opened to Florida so I was there in yr 1 but I was too young to recall any of it

that flight in #5 was the only plane I was in in my life until I was 25.

I didn't actually go to NYC (other then flight connections) until college.

Mr_BillyB@reddit

Memphis has a higher population than Atlanta, and San Diego is almost 3x Atlanta's population. If we're including surrounding metro areas, then, yes, Atlanta is huge — especially geographically speaking — but then we also have to consider the metro areas for all the cities.

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ForestOranges@reddit

Yes I’m including metro areas and cultural reach too. I consider Miami to be a big city even though it only has 500,000 people. It has the 3rd biggest skyline in the country, it’s well known internationally, and is a popular vacation spot for both domestic and international tourists.

Miami didn’t annex everything around it like some cities did so Miami and Miami Beach are actually two different cities. Miami-Dade county alone has around 2.8 million people and the tri-county area has about 6.3 million.

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Mr_BillyB@reddit

That's fine, but I think it drives home how OP's question is in the eye of the beholder Grand Rapids is a big city to a lot of people.

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94grampaw@reddit

I would agree, and by that standard most likely 80-90% of americans have been to a big city, ive been to Philly its definitely a big city, I live just out side of Pittsburgh definitely mid sized(also significantly better), and have been to San Jose, LA, Portland and those are all noticeably real big citys.

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JoePNW2@reddit

(As an example)

Over half of Minnesota's population lives in the Twin Cities metro. It's a hub for the state, the eastern Dakotas, western WI. There are chartered bus tours just to visit the Mall of America. So for that part of the US most folks have probably visited the Cities at least once.

Not surprising at all. I grew up in a coastal resort town. Could see the ocean from the 2nd floor of the high school, and kids that lived within walking distance of the school had never been to the beach.

weymaro@reddit

I met a guy on a study abroad once who was from Boise, Idaho, which isn't a small town by any stretch but we were walking around Bangkok once and he seemed genuinely a little bit afraid of the environment. Another time there was this guy I was fairly acquainted with when I was living in a very small town in Colorado and one day he seemed kind of anxious. When I asked what's up he said he was kind of nervous about having to go to... Oklahoma for a wedding.

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YOUTUBEFREEKYOYO@reddit

Im about the same age, and have only been to 2 big cities, and not by choice. There were relatives funerals. If it were up to me I'd rsther not go back to any big city.

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scumbagstaceysEx@reddit

The last time I was in one of the 20 largest US cities (aside from airport layovers) was in November 2001.

I know quite a few people in WV who’ve never been to a big city.

For a lot of other people, the biggest city they’d been to would be Cincy, Columbus, or Pittsburgh.

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DaisyCutter312@reddit

For a lot of other people, the biggest city they’d been to would be Cincy, Columbus, or Pittsburgh

I would say cities like that count. If you're big enough to have a professional sports team, you're a "big city"

Well, except for Green Bay. Fuck Green Bay

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ShortRasp@reddit

Green Bay lives rent free in your head? Lol

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Mr_BillyB@reddit

Someone from Chicago saying "Fuck Green Bay" should just be expected.

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ShortRasp@reddit

I'm aware. I have family in that area. Lol we like to poke the bear... Pun intended.

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Appalachian_Aioli@reddit

I agree

kartoffel_engr@reddit

Probably depends on why they would in the first place.

Two primary reasons would likely be for business or vacation.

I was born there and went back for a few years of college. Theres not a world where I would ever call GR small. I live near Denver now and would actually call them comparable, not in building scale or population, but the overall city vibe certainly.

There are so many different walks of life, and types of communities in the US. If you live in an insulated community, where everyone was born and raised there and rarely leave, then you could easily never see the need to go to a big city. You might even fear going, since all you hear about big cities in insular places is the violent crime and unrest in the news. Plus, the size and density of a city might be intimidating to someone whose high school graduating class had fewer than 90 people in it.

Having said that, the number of people who live in insular communities is, by definition, comparatively small. So while I am not surprised to learn that a random person you’ve met has never stepped foot in a city bigger than Grand Rapids, I’d be surprised if a large percentage of the people in your acquaintance could say the same, unless you are a resident of one of the aforementioned insular communities.

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Because there’s no need Just because it’s a big city don’t mean I can’t find what I need and want in a small city

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azerty543@reddit

For plenty of people, travel is not a hobby or priority. This isn't a U.S thing. Some people are perfectly fine just living a simple life in their region and focusing on things that matter to them close to home.

Frankly there isn't anything inherently wrong with it. You can be an educated, productive member of society and have a meaningful life even if you never leave Grand Rapids Michigan. Not what I want to do but I'm not everyone.

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pithair_dontcare@reddit

I went to college on Long Island just outside of NYC, about a 45 min train ride. There were several locals at my college who were very proud they had not only never been to NYC but had also never left Long Island and never wanted to. And this was just a small sample size.

I think it’s def the exception rather than the rule, but cities have gotten a bad rap in the news as crime infested and dirty. But as someone who has lived in large cities my whole adult life I’ll say those news reports are very overblown in my experience.

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archmagi1@reddit

Living in Arkansas, I know very few people who haven't been to Dallas/Fort Worth (9th/11th largest), OKC (20th), Memphis (29th), or Kansas City (38th) other than those who are scared of big city crime. DFW, OKC and Memphis are all less than half a days drive from most of the state, and a whole lot of specialized medical care happens there than in the LR or NWA metros.

madcats323@reddit

America is huge. There are places that have no big cities nearby and no need to visit. It’s not a priority for plenty of people.

The only times I've been to a big city was passing through Atlanta and the one time I went to Detroit for a funeral

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colt707@reddit

Easy. If your hobbies don’t require a big city or are impossible in a big city then why would you go? If you like hunting, fishing, camping or other outdoor activities done in nature then you don’t really have a reason to go to big cities. Everything you need to live can be found in a town of under 50k population and if you’re hobbies revolve around nature then odds are you can find the very best of what you need for those hobbies in rural towns of 15-30k.

And I’m not one of those people that’s never been to a major city, been to NYC, Indy and every major metro on the west coast. But every single one of those trips was for business, I went out and checked things out while I was there but I didn’t go to those places because I wanted to check them out. I went because I was making money going there. Then all of my friends and family lived in the rural area I grew up so no need to go there to visit anyone. Anything I want to buy I could find in the biggest town near where I lived and that town has a population of 33k. Only flights I’ve been on where to NYC and Indy, when I drive to travel I avoid major metros because it’s way quicker to bypass cities than drive through them. As for school, I graduated high school and had no desire to go to college plus if I did there was a really good state school in a town of 20k within driving distance of where I lived.

I know an old timer that hasn’t left the 100 or so square miles centered on where he was born, he lives on the family farm he grew up on and his hobbies are fishing and riding horses. The man is in his 60s and has been to 3 counties where the biggest town between them is 50k or so. His wife just wants to rehab abused horses and you’re going to find more horses in rural areas than major cities. There’s a 2 hospitals within 20 minutes of where they lived, 3 different grocery stores, and everything else they could possibly want or need so why would they go to SF, LA or SD? Those cities hold no interest to them.

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Cinisajoy2@reddit

I am 60 and as far as trips, I have been to Dallas. Wasn't impressed. So unless you like nightlife or shopping, please tell me the advantages of a big city.

And what is in Detroit worth seeing?

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Blossom73@reddit

And what is in Detroit worth seeing?

This is very dependent on where you live.

I live in Connecticut. Any time anyone is considering moving here, the first thing everyone says is "It's a short drive to both Boston and NYC" which is true. I can be in Manhattan in under two hours, or Boston in two and a half hours. It's a normal thing for people here to go to the theater, sports games, concerts, day trips to either of those cities.

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seandelevan@reddit

What’s considered a “large city”? I’ve lived mostly in towns ranging from 15k to 50k. I’ve been to NYC, Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Dallas, Philly, DC..Just to name a few…I’ve met some people that think the “city” I lived in with 15k was a big scary evil place and would never go there…so yeah there’s no way in hell their going to NYC let alone Pittsburgh for fucks sake.

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Conscious-Aside-5688@reddit

City haters exist. My pa would drive way out of the way to avoid the stench of NYC

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AnswerGuy301@reddit

I drive out of the way to avoid NYC too. Not because I hate it, but because I don’t want to deal with the traffic there if it’s in my way, and because I don’t need or want a car at all if NYC is my actual destination.

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Additional_Gate3629@reddit

Some people don't like cities.

If you're into hiking and nature it's a massive country full of amazing places to go that aren't urban.

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boxwhitex@reddit

In Texas, quite a lot. Many people don't leave their smaller city since it has all the stuff they need. It's the same the other way, many don't ever leave the big cities either.

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1,437,279 Exactly.

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moonchic333@reddit

A lot of America is rural and the urban sprawl has insured that everything you really need can be found outside of major cities. Going to “the big city” isn’t like it used to be it usually means going to the nearest suburban town for whatever you need. Some people don’t see any appeal to going to a congested city for any reason other than maybe a medical emergency.

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pax-augusta@reddit

As a Michigander, I’m actually not all that surprised by this. I would have expected him to have gone to Detroit (which is a “big city” but really doesn’t give even close to the same big city vibes as places like Baltimore, Portland, St. Louis much less NYC, LA, Chicago)

One weird thing about Michigan is that, unless you’re flying, you kinda have to go a little extra out of your way to travel around the Great Lakes to get to the “mainland” U.S. and although that’s usually only a few extra hours of travel, that can really dissuade folks. It costs more in gas $, makes for a lengthier ride, etc.

Ive noticed when a lot of bands or performers tour, if the tour isn’t major they sometimes skip Michigan and unfortunately it makes sense because they would have to detour up and then back down the state as opposed to going straight across from like PA, OH, IN, IL, MO and so on.

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Theslowestmarathoner@reddit

I guess this makes sense, especially for folks without means but it honestly never occurred to me. Privilege.

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WilcoHistBuff@reddit

Isle Royale is beautiful. Did you check out Pictured Rocks as well?

I think you need to work backwards to get a good approximation of the number you are seeking.

About 85% of American live in a recognized “metropolitan area” and about half of that live in the largest 100 metro areas.

About 5-11% of Americans have never left the state they were born in.

I grew up in NYC and now reside in SF Bay Area but I’m in the wind power business and have spent an immense amount of time traveling the wide open spaces of depopulated America. I spend a lot of time talking to very prosperous farmers and construction contractors in those less populated areas who have never traveled more than a few hundred miles from where they grew up. I know Hutterite and Mennonite farming collectives in the Midwest who farm thousands of acres but have never left their local communities.

That does not represent a huge percentage of the US population but does represent a big percentage of folks living in rural places.

The flip side is knowing tons of people who grew up and live in major metros who have never been to a real rural area.

A super common conversation for me would involve explaining to somebody who has never been to a major metro or never been to a very rural place what the alternative is like.

I had an old family friend in northern Michigan on a fishing trip their last summer register deep concern over my safety in California and SF in particular and I really had to work at explaining that I wasn’t living in a dystopian nightmare—showing pics of hiking Mt Tam, hanging out by the Palace of Fine Arts, etc.

The same friend reached out to me when I was in Portland on the day Trump reported that “Portland was burning” months ago. I snapped a few quick photos and texted him, “Don’t believe everything you hear,” and reported that my only problem was finding a parking place downtown.

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velvet__echo@reddit

I’m from NW Montana where some people never leave the state or even go to Billings (largest “city”). I grew up four hours away from any large city (Spokane and Calgary). So this is very, very common and frankly people in cities sometimes are ignorant to the fact that a lot of people have no desire to go to cities.

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No-Conversation1940@reddit

I grew up in the rural Ozarks, and the largest city I went to as a kid was St Louis.

A lot of people in this country, they don't have much time or money or both.

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Anteater-Curious@reddit

I count St. Louis as pretty big. It feels very city-ish to me, with the stadium and the arch and everything. Mind you, my favorite thing about going to St. Louis was getting to go to Cahokia—so maybe I’m not much of a city person!

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musicalharmonica@reddit

Off-topic OP, but I used to work for the National Park Service up there! I'm assuming you're not on the island because the reception up there is pretty shit lol. Still, it's so beautiful.

Must be freezing this time of year! I would really recommend going to the NPS Visitor Center in Calumet and hope you've had some time to go through Copper Harbor. DM me if you need have any questions/need any suggestions!

I guess to answer your question, the only "large" city I've spent a significant amount of time in is Chicago because it's the only one close. Most cities in the US are very far apart and are an expensive hassle to drive to.

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PCBassoonist@reddit

Some of the US is really rural. It could be like a 10 hour drive to a city. I don't think I went to a city bigger than Atlanta until I was a teenager.

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MadMatter86@reddit

First off, what do you consider a "large city"?

Not for school, work, a wedding, a trip, or just passing through?

I don't know why you would think that school would involve large cities. And most people will get married near where they live, and if you aren't already close to a city, the people you know probably aren't living in a city either. Work highly depends on your job. Most people do not travel at all for work.

And as to passing through - does that really count as having been there, though? If I don't stop and experience the city, I wouldn't say that I have been there when listing places I have been to.

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ForestOranges@reddit

Apparently in Europe a lot of universities are in cities or population centers. Earlier this week or last week someone asked how come we have entire “college towns” and why we put universities in the middle of nowhere.

As someone who just moved to Grand Rapids, this made me laugh.

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AlphabetizedName@reddit

The largest city I’ve been to is Nashville, and I’m in my 40s. Never even been on a plane. Poverty ykwim

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YouDontLookSpiritual@reddit

Im 37 and went to a city for the first time last summer. It was Baltimore, i didn't like it.

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Bzzzzzzz4791@reddit

Someone in my family married someone from rural Oregon. This person had never been to Portland and the first time that they visited the Midwest was the first time in a big city. This person is currently 45 yrs old.

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antoinebeaver@reddit

I live in northern Indiana, and I know many people who have never been to Chicago.

It’s only about 80 miles away. You can be there in less than an hour and a half.

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Walksuphills@reddit

It is surprising. I wouldn't consider myself well traveled, but I've been to a number of large cities. As well as Grand Rapids.

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btg1911@reddit

There is a significant vein of people that are terrified of cities. Their brains have been melted to slag by Fox News.

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There’s his whole thread on Imgur right now about an employee who burned his employer’s 1.2m sq foot warehouse down (with workers inside - fortunately they got out). The thread is about what a wake up call this should be to the owner, Kimberly Clark (2025 revenue: $16.45 billion).

And it finally dawned on me, these people have never truly encountered BIG.

One person asked “how would a company not be affected by the burning of a warehouse of that size??” Well, said warehouse is located in California’s Inland Empire. It’s ideal for logistics and therefore there are thousands of these monstrosities. The warehouse is the in the county of San Bernardino, the largest in the country at 20+ square miles.

Southern California is continuous scrawl from the cost to about Banning, where there’s a break and then the whole desert sprawl. The only way to know you’re in a different city is by the signs on the freeway that say “X city, next 5 exits.”

I’m guessing that people commenting live in places where our county is would cover a sizable chunk of their state or country and there’s maybe one or two warehouses like this if any in the whole state at country. In truth, the loss of the warehouse is budget dust to a company like Kimberly Clark and to “burn it all down,” as they are advocating, would require a nuke.

And nobody’s wages will increase over this. KC execs aren’t frightened and suddenly passing wage hikes. Unionizing would be far more effective.

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Character-Tennis-241@reddit

I'm 60+. I've been to OKC, OK, which by geographical size is the 10th largest City in US. I've also been to Butte, MT which by land size is the 8th largest city. I've been to several of the largest cities by land size that are on the top 20 largest list. I've never been to NYC, LA, Detroit or any other extremely highly populated city. My life just hasn't taken me there. I like space.

gtne91@reddit

Grand Rapids is over 1 million metro population. That isnt a large city?

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cathemeralcrone@reddit

Conversely, how many urbanites have never been to a rural area? I would bet there are more of these people. The number of redditors who think suburb = rural make me nauseous.

300,972. I counted. 😜

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Intelligent-Web-8293@reddit

I've been in st louis and new orleans. Do those count?

It's #15 in the US by population. Well above Indianapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, DC, Detroit, Baltimore, Atlanta, KC, and Miami which I think most people would consider big cities.

Metro population is a different story, though. Columbus is around #30-35 on that list (depending on how you count metros that span into Canada or Mexico; it's #46 in North America). 9 of the 10 cities I just listed easily beat Columbus in metro pop, and Indy is right behind them.

I think if you're talking about a big city downtown feel, then city pop is more important. But for long-term living big city life, metro pop is probably more important.

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maxman1313@reddit

Right? Give me walkable towns/cities or give me space.

rawbface@reddit

I mean, Grand Rapids is a proper city. It's not some small town in the middle of nowhere. It has skyscrapers.

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John-Dune-Awakening@reddit

Probably depends on what you define as a big city. Speaking as someone that grew up in KS, the only reason I went to KC was to attend MLB and NFL games. Otherwise most of my travel was to national parks or abroad. There is a lot to do in the rural US.

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Financial_Test_6391@reddit

Your guy's situation is a bit extreme, but it's true that a significant number of rural people in the US tend to really dislike cities.

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I once had business associates in Columbia, South Carolina. For a state capital city it’s not exactly a metropolis. Had them up to Boston for meetings for a few days and they were gobsmacked - and Boston isn’t, in my opinion, a “big” city like LA, NYC or Atlanta.

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Guy2700@reddit

I bet a lot of people from places like Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and maybe even Nevada, have not been to a big city.

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madcowbcs@reddit

Why would anyone who has had the pleasure of living in a small town or nature want to go to a city ever? They are loud, expensive, crowded, crime ridden, full of garbage, pollution, drugs, traffic. There are bricks and concrete where the water and trees are supposed to be. From NYC to Madrid to Montreal, and Atlanta. I have never been to a city I was comfortable in for more than a few hours.

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ABelleWriter@reddit

Because not everyone wants to go to a big city? Like, I'll go, but because I have something in particular I want to do (see a Broadway show on Broadway, go to the Smithsonian again, etc). But frankly, I live in a small city (231,000 people), and I'd much rather go to somewhere smaller, quieter.

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As an example: Wamsutter, Wyoming is a remote town near the middle of a large state. The nearest hotels are in towns that are 40+ miles in opposite directions along the interstate. Rock Springs and Rawlins are not major cities, just towns big enough to have hotels. To get to a city large enough to have a major airport from Wamsutter, you can drive nearly 4 hours to Salt Lake City, Utah or a little over 4 hours to Denver, Colorado.

This is more of a rule than an exception in most of the interior of the US.

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msbeebalm@reddit

It’s obvious to me that a lot of politicians have never been outside of a large city. Particularly the president who, I believe, has never willingly stepped beyond a paved area. How else to explain the current push to divest the country of its private lands? The administration views our wilderness as untapped sources of revenue, with no regard for the natural inhabitants. The US Forest Service is recently reduced to a single location and its science team dissolved. It’s heartbreaking, and when it’s gone we won’t get it back.

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nous-vibrons@reddit

For me, I didn’t visit a large city until I visited Boston and Toronto last year, when I turned 23. Boston was very cool (though it was the opposite weather wise, worst heat wave EVER), though we spent very little time there, it was an addendum to our Salem trip. We took a train down from Salem and that was incredibly novel to me! I’d only ever been on sightseeing tour trains before, never just on one to travel. The heat prevented us from wandering and sightseeing, but we went to the Paul Revere house on foot and the walk there was something else!

Toronto was a different trip, to see My Chemical Romance in concert. We went to the biggest mall I’ve ever been in there before we went to our hotel. Once we parked our car in the very creepy underground parking garage, it stayed there til check out, and we walked everywhere. I love cities for that ability. Anything we could need was steps away, if you’re determined. Our hotel was a mile away from the venue. Getting to walk through downtown Toronto was so fucking cool. I got so excited seeing streetcars. There were only two kinda concerning moments, one was the Circle K we stopped in near our hotel to get snacks was full of scary ass sixteen year olds, and walking back to the concert was slightly more sketch than walking there. Especially since we were dead tired and I was bleeding from the show.

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KendaleJ@reddit

Love visiting any big city that I get a chance to. I don’t want to live in one but they offer so much more than rural areas for personal growth and culture. I would guess fear and misconception is part of reason.

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Jojosbees@reddit

The country is huge, and some places in the middle don’t really have a large city nearby. My BIL is from a small rural town (like 300 people or less), and his father was born on their land and only left it three times to attend each of his children’s weddings up until recently when he now has to drive two hours each way to the nearest medium sized city to access cancer treatment. This man is only like 70, so I’m not talking about a long time ago either. This is a person in the modern day.

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Dangerous-City6856@reddit

What does a large city have that he can’t get elsewhere?

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Although the vast majority of Americans live in cities or the surrounding area.

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Commercial_Can4057@reddit

True, i live within 30 miles of a major city and i know countless people that avoid going “downtown” as much as possible. They hate the traffic, the crowds, perceived/assumed high crime rates, navigating the narrow streets, the surrounding interstates, and parking. I travel the 30 miles each way to work “in the city” and so many people shake their heads and say “I could never do that.” I’ve done it for nearly 20 years. I like suburban and near-rural living but the jobs I am qualified for are mostly in urban areas. The commute is the price I pay for a big yard, lots of wildlife, and a quiet community.

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Courwes@reddit

Depends on what you consider large and “city”. Are you counting city proper or metro areas?

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OhNoBricks@reddit

I lived in a rural area for 8 years. Many kids at school thought Spokane was a large city or Missoula. I’ve been to London and been to San Fransisco and San Jose and LA, Portland looks small and it makes the area look small too. I also realize the airport is “small” too after visiting larger airports. But I will say the areas around Portland are growing while the city itself has lost population.

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splorp_evilbastard@reddit

I imagine a decent chunk, maybe 15-20%.

I am not among them. I've lived in two states capitals and have been to 25 of the top 100 cities in the US. I also lived in 2 other cities with population populations over 125k & 200k.

I don't consider myself well-tax traveled.

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ramblinjd@reddit

I would venture that because almost half of Americans live in or in the immediate vicinity of large cities, it's a fair minority.

However, I've met people especially out west, who have never been to a city larger than Santa Fe NM or Boise,ID, and even those only once or twice. There's a lot more open space out there.

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AgileSurprise1966@reddit

I mean, its Detroit so

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little_miss_rainbows@reddit

I am very surprised that you met someone like this that you didn't think was poor. I wouldn't consider myself rich (live in a condo for 172K, had student loans, normal job in IT) but I don't even think I have any friends who have never been on airplane. Seems like everyone I know has been to Chicago or New York City, even those who don't travel much.

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No-Contact6664@reddit

So... I've met several people who were terrified of Milwaukee and thought Wausau was a city.

Same thing in Maine with Bangor and they are terrified of Boston or New York.

In all of those cases they had been to those cities but not much. They are scared of driving there or the ummm diversity there.

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Special-Reindeer-178@reddit

Why would anyone WANT to go to detroit?

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I took my mom to Vegas recently to visit family. I believe that’s the biggest city she’s ever been too, and she’s almost 70. I would say her experience isn’t the norm overall, but not uncommon for small town people like herself.

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link2edition@reddit

Could just be personal preference. I have been to large cities, but I dont do it if I have a choice.

49th on the list. Population >1 million.

It's a "real city" by my highly unscientific standards but maybe not a *really big* city.

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PBRStreetgang1979@reddit

What many non-Americans sometimes fail to understand is that the United States is a vast country which spans the entire width of the North American continent. One maybe doesn't appreciate the scale until you've experienced driving from coast to coast in a car. So if a person is born in a less populous state (like Wyoming or Alaska, for example) it's not implausible that they may not be exposed to a large city for a first 2 or 3 decades of their life. But with that said, about 80% of the US population lives in what can be classified as an urbanized area. So I'd guess that those who have never experienced a larger city by age 30 likely are a minority of the 350 million Americans who populate the country.

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CasualVox@reddit

Largest place I've ever been to was Louisville Kentucky... that was too big for me, but I know it's tiny in comparison to most "big cities".

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Tom-the-DragonBjorn@reddit

Lived near Dallas and hardly ever went there. Moved to ATL and realized what shit holes cities are and got away as fast as possible. US cities are the absolute worst.

Cities I have now visited that have not changed my opinion: LA Denver Houston Boston Chicago Columbus DC ATL

Better_Chicken_5184@reddit

I'd reason it's a minority of them since most Americans live in large cities... That's what makes them large.

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LoganLikesYourMom@reddit

City living is overrated. I like trees more than people. I’ve been to numerous large cities but I’ve never wanted to stay for more than a day or two.

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IthurielSpear@reddit

What do you consider a major city? I’ve been to San Francisco and Tulsa and Knoxville and Long Beach (the California one) and oh yeah, Nashville. But many people wouldn’t consider those major cities in terms of population or actual city geographical spread.

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No_Discipline5218@reddit

A whole lot, I'm sure.

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TheBimpo@reddit

How are you at Isle Royale? The park is closed for another week.

Anyway, I’d imagine folks from more remote areas would be less likely to go to major cities. How many or what percentage? We’re all just guessing and giving anecdotal information.

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tacosgunsandjeeps@reddit

Ive been to several and definitely wouldn't live near any of them. Chicago was the shittiest by far.