Cited by 356Complex Network Analysis TechniquesGlobal Urban Networks and DynamicsRegional Economics and Spatial Analysis

The scaling of human interactions with city size

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Schläpfer, Markus, Bettencourt, Luís M. A., Grauwin, Sébastian, Raschke, Mathias, Claxton, Rob, Smoreda, Zbigniew, West, Geoffrey B., Ratti, Carlo·2014·Journal of The Royal Society Interface

Abstract

The size of cities is known to play a fundamental role in social and economic life. Yet, its relation to the structure of the underlying network of human interactions has not been investigated empirically in detail. In this paper, we map society-wide communication networks to the urban areas of two European countries. We show that both the total number of contacts and the total communication activity grow superlinearly with city population size, according to well-defined scaling relations and resulting from a multiplicative increase that affects most citizens. Perhaps surprisingly, however, the probability that an individual's contacts are also connected with each other remains largely unaffected. These empirical results predict a systematic and scale-invariant acceleration of interaction-based spreading phenomena as cities get bigger, which is numerically confirmed by applying epidemiological models to the studied networks. Our findings should provide a microscopic basis towards understanding the superlinear increase of different socioeconomic quantities with city size, that applies to almost all urban systems and includes, for instance, the creation of new inventions or the prevalence of certain contagious diseases.

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Authors
Schläpfer, M., Bettencourt, L. M. A., Grauwin, S., Raschke, M., Claxton, R., Smoreda, Z., West, G. B., & Ratti, C.
Affiliations
  • Santa Fe Institute (US)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
  • Raschke Software Engineering, 65195 Wiesbaden, Germany
  • BT Group (United Kingdom) (GB)
  • Orange (France) (FR)
Corresponding author
Schläpfer, Markus
Venue
Journal of The Royal Society Interface
Published
2014-09-06
Volume
11
Issue
98
Pages
20130789-20130789
ISSN
  • 1742-5662 (ISSN-L)
  • 1742-5689
OpenAlex
W2099610463
Cited by
356
References
60
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 64 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 2
FWCI
18.89
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of The Royal Society Interface (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation
  • Rockefeller Foundation
  • James S. McDonnell Foundation (220020195)
  • John Templeton Foundation (15705)
  • Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria
  • Army Research Office (W911NF1210097)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
  • Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Global Urban Networks and Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis
Keywords
city size, superlinear scaling, communication networks, urban population, contact networks, scale invariance, epidemic spread, disease transmission
MeSH terms
Cities, Communication, United Kingdom, Humans, Population Density, Portugal, Social Behavior, Socioeconomic Factors, Urban Population, Urbanization, Models, Statistical, Cell Phone

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