As it turns out there are actually definitions for these things, but it can differ not just by country but also by state within the US. https://en.wikipedia.or

As it turns out there are actually definitions for these things, but it can differ not just by country but also by state within the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town#United_States CA does not legally acknowledge any distinction between towns and cities. However, many states require a "town" to have fewer than 1,000, 2,000, 6,000, etc., residents (the bound varying by state). Union City has ~75,000 people, which would prevent it from being considered a small town in the majority of states that distinguish rigorously between towns and cities.