Find your current city using GPS or search any location worldwide.
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How to find what city you are in
This tool works in every country with instant city identification using OpenStreetMap data. It returns the city name, district, neighborhood, state or region, country, and postal code when available. Results include a country flag and precise coordinates.
1
Allow location access or search an address
Click "Find My City" to use GPS — your browser will ask permission to share your location. Alternatively, type any address, place name, or landmark into the search box. You can also click directly on the map to select any point anywhere in the world.
2
View your city and location details
The tool uses reverse geocoding to identify your city, district, neighborhood, state/region, country, and postal code. Results appear in a card next to the map showing all available administrative levels for your location.
3
Explore different locations
Click anywhere on the map to look up different cities around the world. The search box accepts addresses in any country and any language. Each click updates the result card with the new location's information.
What people use city lookup for
Travel and navigation
When traveling, especially across unfamiliar regions, it's easy to lose track of exactly which city or town you're in. This is particularly common when driving through metropolitan areas where cities blend together, or when you've just arrived somewhere and need to orient yourself.
EXAMPLE
GPS location 48.8584°N, 2.2945°E: Paris, Ile-de-France, France. District: 7th arrondissement. Near the Eiffel Tower. Postal code: 75007.
Delivery and service addresses
When ordering food, requesting a rideshare, or filling out shipping forms, knowing your exact city name ensures the address is correct. This is especially useful in areas where multiple municipalities share similar street names or where neighborhood boundaries are unclear.
EXAMPLE
Location at 34.0522°N, 118.2437°W: Los Angeles, California, United States. This confirms the city for delivery purposes — not Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, or one of the many other incorporated cities within the LA metro area.
Emergency situations
In an emergency, knowing your city and neighborhood helps when calling for assistance or providing your location to others. Emergency services in many countries are organized at the city or district level, and dispatchers need accurate location information.
Real estate and relocation research
When researching neighborhoods to live in, it helps to understand which city or municipality a specific address belongs to. This affects local taxes, school districts, public services, and regulations. The tool shows all administrative levels to clarify jurisdictional boundaries.
EXAMPLE
Address search "221B Baker Street, London": London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom. District: City of Westminster. This famous Sherlock Holmes address is in the Westminster borough, not the City of London financial district.
Content creation and geotagging
Photographers, bloggers, and social media users often need to accurately tag their content with location information. The tool provides the official city name and administrative hierarchy — more reliable than guessing or using informal neighborhood names.
Global coverage and data quality
City identification uses OpenStreetMap data, which has varying coverage quality by region. Europe, North America, Japan, and Australia have excellent coverage with detailed neighborhood boundaries. Coverage in parts of Africa, Central Asia, and remote regions may be less complete.
Urban areas typically have better data than rural areas. Major cities worldwide have detailed district and neighborhood information, while small villages may only have a name and country.
OpenStreetMap is continuously updated by volunteers worldwide. If you notice missing or incorrect city data, you can contribute corrections directly to OpenStreetMap — improvements typically appear in this tool within a few days.
World city facts at a glance
Largest Metro Area
Tokyo, Japan
37.4 million people in metro area
Most Densely Populated
Manila, Philippines
46,000+ people per sq km
Total World Cities
~10,000
Cities with 100,000+ population
Urban Population
56%
Of world population lives in cities
Fastest Growing
Lagos, Nigeria
Projected 32M by 2035
Oldest Continuously Inhabited
Damascus, Syria
Inhabited for 11,000+ years
More ways people use city lookup
Remote work and digital nomad life
Digital nomads and remote workers moving between cities need to know their exact location for time zone coordination, tax residency rules, and visa compliance. Many countries track the number of days spent in each city for tax purposes — knowing which municipality you're in matters.
EXAMPLE
Working from a cafe in Bali, Indonesia: GPS shows Ubud, Gianyar Regency, Bali, Indonesia. This is the Ubud subdistrict, distinct from nearby Tegallalang or Tampaksiring — important for tracking location history.
International shipping and customs
When shipping packages internationally, the exact city name affects customs processing, delivery routing, and import duties. Couriers and postal services use official municipality names that may differ from commonly used area names.
EXAMPLE
Shipping to a business address in Germany: lookup shows Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany — the official name needed for customs forms, not just "Frankfurt" (which could also mean Frankfurt an der Oder near Poland).
Legal jurisdiction and contracts
Legal documents often require the official city name for jurisdiction clauses, notarization, and court filings. Using the wrong city name can create legal ambiguity. The tool provides the official administrative name recognized by local government.
Language learning and cultural context
Language learners use the tool to understand the geographic context of content they're studying. Knowing whether a phrase or accent comes from Barcelona vs. Madrid, or São Paulo vs. Rio de Janeiro, provides cultural context that enhances learning.
EXAMPLE
Watching a film set in Brazil: lookup of filming location reveals Salvador, Bahia, Brazil — helping understand the distinct Bahian Portuguese accent and Afro-Brazilian cultural influences shown in the film.
Academic research and data collection
Researchers collecting geographic data need precise city identification for location coding. The tool provides standardized place names and administrative hierarchies useful for demographic research, environmental studies, and social science surveys.
Popular city lookups by region
These major cities are frequently searched. Each represents a significant metropolitan area where knowing exact city boundaries matters for navigation, services, and administration.
Tokyo, Japan
Pop: 14M · Largest city proper
Delhi, India
Pop: 32M · Metro area
Shanghai, China
Pop: 29M · Metro area
São Paulo, Brazil
Pop: 22M · Largest in Americas
Mexico City, Mexico
Pop: 22M · Metro area
Cairo, Egypt
Pop: 21M · Largest in Africa
Mumbai, India
Pop: 21M · Metro area
Beijing, China
Pop: 20M · Capital city
New York, USA
Pop: 19M · 5 boroughs
London, UK
Pop: 14M · Greater London
Paris, France
Pop: 11M · Île-de-France
Sydney, Australia
Pop: 5M · Greater Sydney
City administrative divisions worldwide
Different countries use different terms for cities and their subdivisions. Understanding these terms helps interpret the results this tool returns.
United States
City → Borough/District → Neighborhood. NYC has 5 boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, etc.)
United Kingdom
City → Borough → Ward. London has 32 boroughs plus City of London
France
Commune → Arrondissement → Quartier. Paris has 20 arrondissements
Germany
Stadt → Bezirk → Stadtteil. Berlin has 12 Bezirke (districts)
Japan
City (市) → Ward (区) → Town (町). Tokyo has 23 special wards
Brazil
Município → Distrito → Bairro. São Paulo has 32 subprefeituras
This tool returns whatever administrative levels exist in OpenStreetMap for each location. The number of levels shown varies by country and by how completely the area has been mapped.
Related tools and resources
If you need US county information (not just city), use the What County Am I In? tool — it shows county name, county seat, population, and demographic data for all 3,143 US counties.
For US postal codes specifically, the What ZIP Code Am I In? tool identifies your 5-digit ZIP code and shows the serving post office and delivery area.
To get precise coordinates (latitude and longitude) for any location, use the Latitude Longitude Finder — useful for GPS devices, mapping software, or geographic data entry.
For time zone information at any location worldwide, the Time Zone Finder shows the local time zone, UTC offset, and daylight saving status.
Frequently asked questions
Yes! This tool works worldwide. It identifies cities, towns, villages, and other settlements in every country. The data comes from OpenStreetMap, which has global coverage. You can search for or click on any location on Earth.
The tool gets your coordinates via GPS (browser Geolocation API) or address search (Photon geocoder), then sends those coordinates to Nominatim — OpenStreetMap's reverse geocoding service. Nominatim returns the city and all administrative boundaries that contain that point.
City is the primary settlement name. District (or borough) is a subdivision within a city — like Manhattan in New York or Westminster in London. Neighborhood is a smaller local area within a district. Not all locations have all three levels; rural areas may only show a village name.
Some remote areas, oceans, and uninhabited regions may not have city-level data in OpenStreetMap. In these cases, the tool shows whatever administrative information is available (country, region) even if no city name exists.
GPS accuracy depends on your device and environment. Smartphones are typically accurate to within 5-10 meters outdoors and 20-50 meters indoors. WiFi positioning used by some browsers can vary more widely. For city identification, this level of accuracy is generally sufficient.
No. GPS coordinates are processed in your browser and sent only to Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) for reverse geocoding. We never store, track, or share any location data. Nominatim has its own privacy policy regarding API usage logs.
Postal code availability varies by country. Some countries have complete postal code data in OpenStreetMap; others have partial coverage. Rural areas are more likely to lack postal code information than urban areas.
Yes. Type any address into the search box. The autocomplete works with addresses worldwide and in multiple languages. The tool will identify the city and all administrative boundaries for that location.
The result card displays the country flag emoji next to the city name. This is generated from the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code returned by the geocoder. Some older devices may not display flag emojis correctly.
Clicking on water will typically show "Unknown Location" or just the country/territory name if the point is within territorial waters. The tool always attempts to return whatever geographic information is available.
Tokyo, Japan is the largest metropolitan area with approximately 37 million people. By city proper population, Tokyo also leads at around 14 million. Shanghai, Delhi, Beijing, and Mumbai round out the top five largest cities globally.
There are approximately 10,000 cities with populations over 100,000 worldwide. Counting all incorporated municipalities, towns, and villages, the number exceeds millions. OpenStreetMap, which powers this tool, contains data for over 2 million named places globally.
The distinction varies by country. In the US, cities are typically larger and have more governmental powers than towns. In the UK, a city traditionally requires a royal charter (often having a cathedral). This tool shows whatever administrative designation is recorded in OpenStreetMap for each location.
Yes. The search box accepts addresses and place names in any language. Type "東京" for Tokyo, "Москва" for Moscow, or "القاهرة" for Cairo. The underlying OpenStreetMap data includes local-language names for most places worldwide.
City limits define the official boundary of a municipality. Your address might be "in" a city for postal purposes but actually outside city limits in an unincorporated area. This affects local taxes, voting districts, and which local government provides services. This tool shows the actual municipality boundary.
Some areas have multiple overlapping jurisdictions. You might expect "Los Angeles" but be in the separately incorporated city of "West Hollywood." The tool shows the actual municipality that governs your specific location, which may differ from the common metropolitan area name.
This tool identifies cities by geographic location, not phone numbers. For area code lookups, you'd need a separate telephone database. However, once you know the general region of an area code, you can click on the map to explore cities in that area.
This tool focuses on city identification. For time zone information, use our Time Zone Finder tool, which shows the local time zone, UTC offset, and daylight saving status for any location worldwide.
A municipality is a general term for any local government unit — it could be a city, town, village, township, or borough depending on the country. In many countries, "city" and "municipality" are used interchangeably. This tool displays whatever administrative term is used locally.
OpenStreetMap data is updated continuously by volunteers worldwide. The Nominatim service typically reflects changes within a few days. If a new city is incorporated or boundaries change, it may take some time for the update to appear in geocoding results.
Data sources & methodology
City identification uses Nominatim reverse geocoding with OpenStreetMap data — a free, editable map of the world maintained by volunteers. Address autocomplete uses the Photon geocoder by Komoot. Map rendering uses MapLibre GL JS with OpenFreeMap tiles. GPS location uses the browser Geolocation API.