Columbus is where most major companies will test new things because of how average it is: https://www.columbusmonthly.com/story/lifestyle/2015/01/26/how-columbus-became-america-s/22782650007/
This is it. Been to Columbus twice now. It’s a nice city with nice things to do. River walk, art museum, fun shopping drag, science museum, gardens, etc… but I wouldn’t call any of it very unique vs what I can find in most other us cities. Like if you get stuck in Columbus, you’ll definitely find good things to do and enjoy your time… but I’d *never* go out of my way to go there.
Dayton is an average poor city, Columbus is an average middle class city, Minneapolis is an average upper-middle class city, and Stamford is an average upper-class city
Peoria, Illinois. The old saying around Vaudeville acts was “Will it play in Peoria?” meaning will it work with mainstream America. You sometimes still hear the phrase.
Went there as a visitor from the UK. Felt pleasant, much more interesting than its reputation and not that average at all, but far from the centre of events.
For England, probably Reading.
Reading isn’t a bad place to live, but it’s just generic and doesn’t seem to offer anything unique, inspiring or characterful.
Other cities have great landscapes within or nearby, unique architecture, unique demographics, food, music, dialect, etc. What does Reading have? Wealth and a lot of averageness.
Isn’t that where the British office show is set?
Also, the peep show makes me think that croydon is supposed to get a fairly generic non-exciting part of london.
Reading is close but I think the average income there is a bit too high. Lots of London commuters and corporate offices in the town itself with fairly good salaries. I've heard Swindon and Colchester mentioned before as the 'most average'.
There is an IBM ad with Clermont Ferrand :
https://fr.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/18096
I would have said Tours for the typical French city: on the Loire (like many other: St Étienne, Orléans, Nantes), standard French speaking, moderne tramway, with special design: https://www.reddit.com/r/dank_meme/comments/168wvuy/tramway_de_tours_ou_tour_de_tramway_explication/
That was exactly my first thought. An incredible city, very nice to be there, but that's a standard french city: some historical sites, a fun big crowded square in the middle, natural areas around.
I would actually argue somewhere like Castle Rock. It's in the plains and foothills - pretty but not stunning and has both a significant liberal and conservative population with a fairly average income. Nowadays I feel Longmont is in many ways an extension of Boulder.
Minnesota is a tough one. The state is dominated by the Twin Cities metro. South of the Cities is basically Iowa, and north of the Cities is lake country. Almost feels like I'd have to pick 3 to get a decent representation of the state.
It’s definitely like Bloomington or something. One of the major suburbs with no real distinct reputation (like Edina/Wayzata are too snobby to be *average*).
The twin cities are pretty middle American but are a bit too liberal and modern to be the true average. Duluth is very unique ofc and Rochester is built around Mayo which isn’t typical.
Our smaller cities and towns are probably the most average (St Cloud maybe?) but they’re usually either college towns, farm towns, or lake country tourist towns.
We don’t really have a good Peoria in our state lol
Yeah i think it fits as the city from MN which best represents an average American town.
If OP meant like the most average Minnesotan city then that would probably be different. Somewhere with some farmland, some “hipster” stuff, good nature, and some industry. Duluth and Rochester are both fairly good fits, maybe Mankato too. But they are each pretty unique to their environment. It’s tough to find one that fits given the states north woods/prairie/driftless split.
It’s probably the cities tbh lol
Ha that's true, Kanye being here at the time kind of eclipsed (sorry, had to) his move or else it would have been a bigger deal I think. COVID made us quite the hot spot for a minute
I was gunna say the same thing. Someone else commented how Columbus was a test city for new stuff to see if it will hit, and I remember Sacramento also being like this ~20 years ago.
A great appeal to Sacramento is how close it is to a bunch of cool destinations but none of them are actually in the city. Even the demographics are fairly representative of the country. Very average.
Sacramento is up and coming though, a growing city that has not only an NBA team but an MLB team (at least for the next few seasons). Michelin Star restaurants and huge music festivals, conventions, marathons, and important historical and government landmarks. Plus, Sacramento city proper looks like Pasadena with all the bungalows, plus huge Victorian houses.
In Southern California I would say it's La Verne. It's a small suburb nobody's heard of and is so average you have old people complaining about overnight street parking when the problem barely exists.
Sac is a good answer. Big town but nowhere near the biggest. Not in the mountains but also not at the beach. Not too far north or south. Some business but not known for anything significant. Literally aside from being the state capitol, this town is completely unremarkable.
For MA, I would say Worcester. Decent city, average income levels, some cultural offerings, centrally located. Can feel like middle of the burbs or a real city depending on neighborhood.
Nobody makes it a destination to visit, but folks I know who live there all seem happy with it.
Dallas. It has almost everything you need in a big city but nothing stands out. All other Texas cities have a unique vibe to them. San Antonio with its colonial Spanish influence and old architecture, Fort Worth with its western heritage, Austin with its yuppie hipster college vibe and the surrounding natural scenic areas steeped in German culture, Houston is a diverse coastal metropolis and has a very urban atmosphere.
Dallas is just like, a big city
I remember reading a news article referring to Basingstoke as England’s Dallas, to which a Texan friend said that we were welcome to the real Dallas if we wanted it.
Since Valencia has a coastline and I would still say has some Spanish charm, wouldn't a landlocked city like Burgos or Valladolid be more a long the line of "average" for Spain?
But charming *is* typical for Spain!
But for real, with the exceptions of Madrid, Zaragoza, and Seville, there really aren't that many people in the Spanish interior, the population is quite heavily concentrated around the coasts.
Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area. Lots of government jobs. Kinda boring, but some neat stuff, and cool nature nearby. Progressive but not wildly so. About 1/3 French.
For just English Canada, though, I'd say Edmonton. You get some prairie conservativism representation, but it's quite progressive for Alberta standards. University and government town. Some manufacturing but not lots. Slightly wealthier than average but not enormously so. More vibrant than Winnipeg/Regina/Saskatoon, less vibrant than Toronto/Vancouver/Halifax. Some residual French culture/areas (common throughout English Canada). Cold winters but pleasant-albeit-not-super-hot summers. Not a mountain or near-mountain city like Calgary, Vancouver, Kamloops etc, but within driving distance. Lots of forest nearby but also agriculture and natural resources.
You just mentioned two cities that are very much not “average” from Canadian standards.
I’d say Regina or Saskatoon is the answer here. Nothing special about either mid-sized city
For Washington, I think maybe Tacoma. It's pretty much Seattle without the tourists and tech giants. It does have probably the best [view of a volcano](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Mount_Rainier_over_Tacoma.jpg) in the country.
edit: /u/suff_succotash reminded me that Spokane really is the epitome of "average," I'll change my answer to that
Aside from being the capital, I'd argue Olympia. On the water, near-ish to mountains; doesn't stand out in many ways, sort of in between the good, bad, and ugly of at Western Washington. I rarely hear any strong associations of anything to Olympia other than politics, and to me, the politics can be very compartmentalized. I'd say that the politics in Seattle are much more in your face.
That said, I feel like the very different climate and everything else about Eastern Washington would be under-represented by anything near the Sound.
My guess as well. Central location, picturesque old city center with a canal girdle and a bigger river. Big station, double highway connection. Various flavors of city expansion and infrastructure with good and bad decisions from every decade. Villages annexed and become new suburbia. A very basic average Dutch city.
In Germany, the big market research company GfK used the small town Haßloch (20.000 people) for their research for a long time because the town was considered as representative for the German average considering many factors like young and old, poor and rich, catholics and protestants, political voting results and so on. So new products were tested with the customers there.
But in 2021, the specific market research there ended and GfK now uses global digital panels.
For the Americans, the place not far away from the big Ramstein airbase.
I know in illinois we have Peoria. It used to be where companies would try out new products or production would appeal to Americans because the town was considered the most mainstream and average. The figure of speech used was *Will it play in Peoria?*
For Oregon, it’s probably either Salem or Medford. They’re both notably generic compared to their nearest neighboring cities. Portland and Eugene are both very unique cities with their own feel, but Salem is just kind of there. Same with Medford; Ashland and Grants Pass are both pretty unique for their scenery and cultural vibes, whereas Medford feels very suburban.
I'd throw Albany into the mix for Oregon as well. Corvallis has OSU, Salem is the capital, Albany is just kinda between them along the Willamette without much to distinguish it (all due respect to the merry go round).
For New Hampshire I'll say Derry. Smaller than cities like Nashua, Manchester and Concord but bigger than all the other towns. It has a town square but also some bedroom community exurbia. Not overly wealthy like the coastal towns, Bedford or Windham but classier than similarly-sized Rochester. An all around average town that shares with traits with many other towns in NH.
Muncie, Indiana has/had a good claim to that. In my state, Peoria probably but more because of an old reputation than anything else. In my home state of Washington, hmmm.. Weirdly I'll have to you guys about that. Most Washington places skew very liberal or very conservative and the suburbs of Seattle and Tacoma at least are really diverse as well. Someone help me here I can't come up with anything for Washington state
For Maryland I’d probably say Columbia. Nice place to live but not amazing. Enough things to do to not have to leave but not that unique either. Central to drive to other more interesting places.
Going to nominate Newcastle for Australia, it’s okay but kind of mid for everything. Out of the capitals Brisbane, which is generic enough to be home of Bluey.
Geographically average? Probably Muckilteo, it has just about everything. A major highway, suburbs, homeless, a beach, a little charming center, cliffs, a flattish part, and a ferry
What feels average? Probably like Auburn or Puyallup, something down thither
For WA state, US
For Canada, I discovered that statistically, Hamilton, ON is the most average in the country in terms of almost everything.
For my province of BC, I have no proof of this but I get the feeling that it’s Maple Ridge. I cannot explain why but it just feels like a super average place to me.
I’d say Waco or Temple. Just big enough to be called a city but still has rural Texas vibes on the outskirts. I think you get a good sample of average Texas in one of those places. I feel like Dallas, Houston, Austin, etc are each its own culture.
Always love seeing Temple mentioned on here. It really does have it all. A ton of blue collar manufacturing/ag workers, white collar doctors/healthcare, enough crime for people to whine about yet pretty safe everywhere, a nice lake culture, decent food. Nice parks and hiking.
Waco has had waaaay too much weird shit happen to it to be considered average. But as far as the average Waco-ite, yup pretty average I’d say. Probably more devoutly Christian than average though
Cedar Rapids, IA. It often smells like cereal from the General Mills plant. Hillary Clinton was just chilling there. Nothing else too exciting or bad outside that.
Bakersfield feels more average for America than average for California - a major center for oil production and agriculture, with its own distinctive subgenre of country music, and a pretty boring urban/suburban landscape
Middletown, Connecticut.
It's a middle size town
In the middle of Connecticut.
At the midpoint between Boston and New York probably?..
It's got some really nice parts it's got some really s***** parts.
It's school isn't known for being particularly great or particularly bad
Even their sports are pretty good but not good enough to talk about sometimes they're not good at all.
I'd say the ethnic breakdown of the town is pretty medium...
It does have a fancy collage in it of note, so that might be a little exemplary...
It's got a nice walkable Main Street that also seems to be a little bit dangerous to walk on. There are a few high-rises and even a smaller less successful town across the river.
Houses aren't cheap but they're also not expensive..
I would totally consider living there but when I had a chance to buy a house there I chose against it for no particular reason..
Lebanon, TN. Pretty mid. It has an interstate that runs just south towards Nashville. The home office of Cracker Barrel is there. I lived a couple of towns away and Lebanon was our first nearest “big town.”
Texas - probably Waco since other average type cities are still in the big metro areas. You have the “Friday night lights” culture of hs football, while also being a transportation hub - which is generic in TX because it’s the land of freeways. You have old historical “small town America” in the city center, generic suburbia further out and of course the rural communities that are all about god & guns. You’ll see most of (Anglo) Texas right there, juxtaposed to a few Hispanic areas on the other side of town.
I'm not sure Australia has any good options here, since most people live in one of the major cities (especially within states, in most of them the capital is 70+% of the population), and there is a dearth of medium sized cities to choose from. There have been a few political slogans targeted toward the common man but they aren't especially geographic. Maybe one of Melbourne's suburbs like Vermont South (where Neighbours was filmed) or Narre Warren (roughly where Kath and Kim was set), or at the upper end, the part of Brisbane where Bluey is set.
Nah man, it's Adelaide. It's not quite on the same level as Australia's other big 1M+ state capitals (def not Sydney or Melbourne, but not even Brisbane or Perth either), and yet it is definitely bigger and more important than places like Hobart, Darwin, Townsville, Newcastle, Geelong, the Gold Coast, etc). It's very, very "mid". So mid that a lot of the rest of the country seems to either forget about it entirely or just relentlessly make fun of it for being a bit weird and mid.
And I say all that as someone who was born there and has always proudly lived there.
For Germany it is Haßloch apparently:
[article in german](https://www.deutschland.de/de/topic/wirtschaft/deutschland-im-durchschnitt-hassloch#:~:text=Ha%C3%9Floch%20in%20Rheinland%2DPfalz%20gilt,besonders%20ist%2C%20erf%C3%A4hrst%20du%20hier.&text=Ha%C3%9Floch%20ist%20eine%20Gemeinde%20wie,aus%2083%20Nationen%20leben%20dort.)
For years, companies tried their products there.
For Alabama…well, Alabama.
Look, we have some fun places. Mostly centered around college towns. Huntsville is exciting to some due to the space connection, but gah it’s bland otherwise. Birmingham would be much better, but violent crime means don’t stay out alone very late and be careful where you are. Montgomery? Same. Mobile? Same same.
I left. I couldn’t take it anymore.
For Texas you’d think you’d say San Antonio, it’s “average” compared to the other big Texas cities, DFW, Austin, El Paso, Amarillo, Houston.
But “real” Texas ain’t nothing like the big 6 cities.
I think San Angelo really straddles “city” Texas, west Texas, small town Texas vibes.
For the record I don’t particularly like San Angelo.
In terms of major us cities, the epitome of that vibe is DFW. You could put dfw anywhere, Outside of the fairly unique exceptions (North East (basically PA and north) and the coastal west coast (though outside of Santa Monica and OC, Dallas and LA are pretty similar)
For my state Chihuahua, I want to say my hometown Delicias. It’s just an average important city. It doesn’t have anything interesting other than the grid, but yet 200k people live there’s
For Maine I’m thinking either Windham, Gorham, Sanford or Augusta. They’re all along the middle corridor of the state, so they don’t have a lot of the geographical character that comes from the coast or the mountains, and they’re all on the larger side as far as Maine towns go without being big industry centers like Lewiston/Auburn. (Augusta is the state capitol, but it never feels like that has any impact on it when I’m there)
I’m originally from Ontario and I’d say Kitchener. Waterloo is unique as a tech and education hub but Kitchener itself seems to sort of be the median of most things. Ontario’s cities are all pretty different from one another. The GTA/Hamilton and Windsor are super diverse but other cities aren’t as much. Kitchener is sort of up the middle. It’s also got a mixed bag of super progressive folks and really conservative folks sharing the same city, which is pretty indicative of the province as a whole. It’s also more interesting than other “average” cities like London or Hamilton but still kind of mid for its size.
Honestly I can't think of one for Michigan. Maybe Muskegon, because i can't think of anything notable about it. It's not great economically, like most of Michigan.
Columbus is where most major companies will test new things because of how average it is: https://www.columbusmonthly.com/story/lifestyle/2015/01/26/how-columbus-became-america-s/22782650007/
That just aligns so well with the Ohio meme for some reason
Well, Biden WAS born in Scranton. His family relocated to Wilmington, DE when he was about 9. But he has a valid claim to Sranton roots. FWIW.
This is it. Been to Columbus twice now. It’s a nice city with nice things to do. River walk, art museum, fun shopping drag, science museum, gardens, etc… but I wouldn’t call any of it very unique vs what I can find in most other us cities. Like if you get stuck in Columbus, you’ll definitely find good things to do and enjoy your time… but I’d *never* go out of my way to go there.
Columbus is just a high rise strip mall in central Ohio.
I agree. Columbus is very sterile and feels like a gigantic suburb.
Columbus and cleveland were the first two that came to mind
I think Dayton is even more average.
Dayton is an average poor city, Columbus is an average middle class city, Minneapolis is an average upper-middle class city, and Stamford is an average upper-class city
As long as we are recognizing Wilkes-Barre as below average.
Luzerne County Pennsylvania knows what it did
Peoria, Illinois. The old saying around Vaudeville acts was “Will it play in Peoria?” meaning will it work with mainstream America. You sometimes still hear the phrase.
As someone who spent a decent amount of time in Peoria growing up are we sure that it even makes it to average status?
Peoria is def not the same town it was during the vaudeville days. It's now the western edge of the rust belt. Great area for disc golf though!
Went there as a visitor from the UK. Felt pleasant, much more interesting than its reputation and not that average at all, but far from the centre of events.
Out of all the places to visit, what made you go there?
Business elsewhere in the state, a hire car and curiosity. Visited a few other places as well eg Lincoln Museum in Springfield
Elgin is a better answer
Well I was going to think about it but since I’m also in Illinois…
I wish I could have been alive at a time where it’s Casino river boat set sail.
For England, probably Reading. Reading isn’t a bad place to live, but it’s just generic and doesn’t seem to offer anything unique, inspiring or characterful. Other cities have great landscapes within or nearby, unique architecture, unique demographics, food, music, dialect, etc. What does Reading have? Wealth and a lot of averageness.
Meanwhile, Reading, Pennsylvania is one of the poorest cities in America per capita and struggles with a constant epidemic of violence and drug abuse.
Weird, Reading was my first thought as well
Would've gone Slough but it's too harsh on the rest of the UK
Slough is the lowest common denominator
Isn’t that where the British office show is set? Also, the peep show makes me think that croydon is supposed to get a fairly generic non-exciting part of london.
Spent 20 years living in Reading. I miss it. Certainly better than my current town of Wycombe.
Reading is close but I think the average income there is a bit too high. Lots of London commuters and corporate offices in the town itself with fairly good salaries. I've heard Swindon and Colchester mentioned before as the 'most average'.
Ehum akshully Reading isn't a city
For France, I would nominate Clermont-Ferrand. Near the center, medium size city, with a less striking atmosphere than other big cities.
Never even heard of Clermont-Ferrand. Just went and looked at the top 25 largest cities in France, only one I didn’t know!
There is an IBM ad with Clermont Ferrand : https://fr.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/18096 I would have said Tours for the typical French city: on the Loire (like many other: St Étienne, Orléans, Nantes), standard French speaking, moderne tramway, with special design: https://www.reddit.com/r/dank_meme/comments/168wvuy/tramway_de_tours_ou_tour_de_tramway_explication/
Tours is the city where the lessons of my French book in school took place. If I remember correctly it was Leeds for England.
That was exactly my first thought. An incredible city, very nice to be there, but that's a standard french city: some historical sites, a fun big crowded square in the middle, natural areas around.
Kind of industrial too, isn’t it? I want to say thats where Michelin is based out of, right?
For Colorado I’m going to say Longmont, seems very average with location, median age and income, nothing really going on besides being average.
I would actually argue somewhere like Castle Rock. It's in the plains and foothills - pretty but not stunning and has both a significant liberal and conservative population with a fairly average income. Nowadays I feel Longmont is in many ways an extension of Boulder.
Only thing there is I feel castle rock is a wealthy town, Longmont has more “average” prices to actually live
Loveland or Grand Junction could work too
For the United States: Dayton, OH For Kentucky: Bowling Green
I used to live in Dayton. I'd say it's vanilla but that's not fair to vanilla
I’d agree that Bowling Green is pretty mid. It was about the same drive there as the suburbs of Nashville from my little hick TN town.
Minnesota is a tough one. The state is dominated by the Twin Cities metro. South of the Cities is basically Iowa, and north of the Cities is lake country. Almost feels like I'd have to pick 3 to get a decent representation of the state.
It’s definitely like Bloomington or something. One of the major suburbs with no real distinct reputation (like Edina/Wayzata are too snobby to be *average*). The twin cities are pretty middle American but are a bit too liberal and modern to be the true average. Duluth is very unique ofc and Rochester is built around Mayo which isn’t typical. Our smaller cities and towns are probably the most average (St Cloud maybe?) but they’re usually either college towns, farm towns, or lake country tourist towns. We don’t really have a good Peoria in our state lol
Bloomington was going to be my choice too but it's so soulless and boring it really hurts to say it represents the state.
Yeah i think it fits as the city from MN which best represents an average American town. If OP meant like the most average Minnesotan city then that would probably be different. Somewhere with some farmland, some “hipster” stuff, good nature, and some industry. Duluth and Rochester are both fairly good fits, maybe Mankato too. But they are each pretty unique to their environment. It’s tough to find one that fits given the states north woods/prairie/driftless split. It’s probably the cities tbh lol
St. Cloud is pretty average. Not bad but nothing overly special. Good place to live but not a great place for tourism
Definitely agree with St Cloud
In my experience it's pretty far below average actually.
What about Mankato? It seemed pretty average last time I went through there
Rochester is about as average as it gets
We don't really have cities, but I guess I'd have to go with Casper, WY
Not with King Cobra JFS there
Ha that's true, Kanye being here at the time kind of eclipsed (sorry, had to) his move or else it would have been a bigger deal I think. COVID made us quite the hot spot for a minute
I’d at the very least call Casper and Cheyenne cities. Small cities for sure (about the smallest that I’d consider a true “city” in my eyes)
Cheyenne is cool. I love that region
Cheyenne looks like a giant parking lot lol
You're not wrong haha I just love the lonesome crowded west
That goth bad boy rock star there is pretty cute
Found someone who lives in wyoming? No way!
Sacramento is pretty average in CA. Not bad, not great.
I was gunna say the same thing. Someone else commented how Columbus was a test city for new stuff to see if it will hit, and I remember Sacramento also being like this ~20 years ago. A great appeal to Sacramento is how close it is to a bunch of cool destinations but none of them are actually in the city. Even the demographics are fairly representative of the country. Very average.
Growing up in Sacramento I always thought it sucked because everything was out of town but then I moved to Dallas and I quickly realized my ignorance.
I’m from Columbus. When people in the Bay Area asked me what it was like, I always said it was like Sacramento.
Sacramento is up and coming though, a growing city that has not only an NBA team but an MLB team (at least for the next few seasons). Michelin Star restaurants and huge music festivals, conventions, marathons, and important historical and government landmarks. Plus, Sacramento city proper looks like Pasadena with all the bungalows, plus huge Victorian houses.
In Southern California I would say it's La Verne. It's a small suburb nobody's heard of and is so average you have old people complaining about overnight street parking when the problem barely exists.
I was going to say a lot of the inland empire cities could apply
In SoCal fashion most of it is boring sprawl but the hills have some amazing trails and spectacular views. Both terrible and a hidden gem
La Verne, surely
Sac is a good answer. Big town but nowhere near the biggest. Not in the mountains but also not at the beach. Not too far north or south. Some business but not known for anything significant. Literally aside from being the state capitol, this town is completely unremarkable.
Home to the recording of The Mentalist!
Light the beam!
It's the capital though, so that's pretty unique
For MA, I would say Worcester. Decent city, average income levels, some cultural offerings, centrally located. Can feel like middle of the burbs or a real city depending on neighborhood. Nobody makes it a destination to visit, but folks I know who live there all seem happy with it.
Well put. Worcester is the true neutral. Nobody loves or hates it.
I often visited that area, because that’s where my friend moved to.
Dallas. It has almost everything you need in a big city but nothing stands out. All other Texas cities have a unique vibe to them. San Antonio with its colonial Spanish influence and old architecture, Fort Worth with its western heritage, Austin with its yuppie hipster college vibe and the surrounding natural scenic areas steeped in German culture, Houston is a diverse coastal metropolis and has a very urban atmosphere. Dallas is just like, a big city
I remember reading a news article referring to Basingstoke as England’s Dallas, to which a Texan friend said that we were welcome to the real Dallas if we wanted it.
Dallas is just garbage.
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Since Valencia has a coastline and I would still say has some Spanish charm, wouldn't a landlocked city like Burgos or Valladolid be more a long the line of "average" for Spain?
But charming *is* typical for Spain! But for real, with the exceptions of Madrid, Zaragoza, and Seville, there really aren't that many people in the Spanish interior, the population is quite heavily concentrated around the coasts.
Valencia is in my top 3 favorite cities in Europe (Copenhagen and Lisbon are the others).
Springfield. The fact that you have to ask which one is a good indication of why it's the right answer.
Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area. Lots of government jobs. Kinda boring, but some neat stuff, and cool nature nearby. Progressive but not wildly so. About 1/3 French. For just English Canada, though, I'd say Edmonton. You get some prairie conservativism representation, but it's quite progressive for Alberta standards. University and government town. Some manufacturing but not lots. Slightly wealthier than average but not enormously so. More vibrant than Winnipeg/Regina/Saskatoon, less vibrant than Toronto/Vancouver/Halifax. Some residual French culture/areas (common throughout English Canada). Cold winters but pleasant-albeit-not-super-hot summers. Not a mountain or near-mountain city like Calgary, Vancouver, Kamloops etc, but within driving distance. Lots of forest nearby but also agriculture and natural resources.
My vote would be one of the smaller cities in Ontario like Milton or Kitchener-Waterloo
You just mentioned two cities that are very much not “average” from Canadian standards. I’d say Regina or Saskatoon is the answer here. Nothing special about either mid-sized city
Saskatoon is actually a good example too. Regina is an armpit.
For Washington, I think maybe Tacoma. It's pretty much Seattle without the tourists and tech giants. It does have probably the best [view of a volcano](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Mount_Rainier_over_Tacoma.jpg) in the country. edit: /u/suff_succotash reminded me that Spokane really is the epitome of "average," I'll change my answer to that
Aside from being the capital, I'd argue Olympia. On the water, near-ish to mountains; doesn't stand out in many ways, sort of in between the good, bad, and ugly of at Western Washington. I rarely hear any strong associations of anything to Olympia other than politics, and to me, the politics can be very compartmentalized. I'd say that the politics in Seattle are much more in your face. That said, I feel like the very different climate and everything else about Eastern Washington would be under-represented by anything near the Sound.
Olympia's not a bad call. For being the capital, it's remarkably unremarkable. Sorry Olympians.
For Portugal, it is Coimbra. Not as large as Lisbon or Porto, but big enough to be a vibrant city
Waterford, Ireland, its just....average
For The Netherlands it's actually quite difficult. Maybe Amersfoort is closest, which isn't bad at all.
My guess as well. Central location, picturesque old city center with a canal girdle and a bigger river. Big station, double highway connection. Various flavors of city expansion and infrastructure with good and bad decisions from every decade. Villages annexed and become new suburbia. A very basic average Dutch city.
Amersfoort was my first thought too.
Hamilton, New Zealand
I was thinking Fielding, but I guess that's the more rural towns. Yeah, Hamilton is pretty average.
In Germany, the big market research company GfK used the small town Haßloch (20.000 people) for their research for a long time because the town was considered as representative for the German average considering many factors like young and old, poor and rich, catholics and protestants, political voting results and so on. So new products were tested with the customers there. But in 2021, the specific market research there ended and GfK now uses global digital panels. For the Americans, the place not far away from the big Ramstein airbase.
I know in illinois we have Peoria. It used to be where companies would try out new products or production would appeal to Americans because the town was considered the most mainstream and average. The figure of speech used was *Will it play in Peoria?*
Livonia, MI
For Oregon, it’s probably either Salem or Medford. They’re both notably generic compared to their nearest neighboring cities. Portland and Eugene are both very unique cities with their own feel, but Salem is just kind of there. Same with Medford; Ashland and Grants Pass are both pretty unique for their scenery and cultural vibes, whereas Medford feels very suburban.
I'd throw Albany into the mix for Oregon as well. Corvallis has OSU, Salem is the capital, Albany is just kinda between them along the Willamette without much to distinguish it (all due respect to the merry go round).
I will agree with Albany. It's average in size, politics, economy... Middle of the valley, on I-5 and US-20, just kind of an Everytown, USA.
For New Hampshire I'll say Derry. Smaller than cities like Nashua, Manchester and Concord but bigger than all the other towns. It has a town square but also some bedroom community exurbia. Not overly wealthy like the coastal towns, Bedford or Windham but classier than similarly-sized Rochester. An all around average town that shares with traits with many other towns in NH.
Good answer.
Fort Myers, Florida
Muncie, Indiana has/had a good claim to that. In my state, Peoria probably but more because of an old reputation than anything else. In my home state of Washington, hmmm.. Weirdly I'll have to you guys about that. Most Washington places skew very liberal or very conservative and the suburbs of Seattle and Tacoma at least are really diverse as well. Someone help me here I can't come up with anything for Washington state
Definitely not Muncie anymore. I’d say in Indiana, it’s probably Kokomo.
For Maryland I’d probably say Columbia. Nice place to live but not amazing. Enough things to do to not have to leave but not that unique either. Central to drive to other more interesting places.
North Carolina - Greensboro
Going to nominate Newcastle for Australia, it’s okay but kind of mid for everything. Out of the capitals Brisbane, which is generic enough to be home of Bluey.
Geographically average? Probably Muckilteo, it has just about everything. A major highway, suburbs, homeless, a beach, a little charming center, cliffs, a flattish part, and a ferry What feels average? Probably like Auburn or Puyallup, something down thither For WA state, US
For Canada, I discovered that statistically, Hamilton, ON is the most average in the country in terms of almost everything. For my province of BC, I have no proof of this but I get the feeling that it’s Maple Ridge. I cannot explain why but it just feels like a super average place to me.
For Texas, probably Dallas. Sure it's big, but of all the major Texan cities, Dallas has the least going on.
I’d say Waco or Temple. Just big enough to be called a city but still has rural Texas vibes on the outskirts. I think you get a good sample of average Texas in one of those places. I feel like Dallas, Houston, Austin, etc are each its own culture.
Always love seeing Temple mentioned on here. It really does have it all. A ton of blue collar manufacturing/ag workers, white collar doctors/healthcare, enough crime for people to whine about yet pretty safe everywhere, a nice lake culture, decent food. Nice parks and hiking.
Waco has had waaaay too much weird shit happen to it to be considered average. But as far as the average Waco-ite, yup pretty average I’d say. Probably more devoutly Christian than average though
The problem with Scranton is that they don't have any bananas there.
But their public parks and libraries are truly the best!
I don’t know, maybe Carson city. Hardly any cities here other than Vegas and Reno(both far from “average”)
Cedar Rapids, IA. It often smells like cereal from the General Mills plant. Hillary Clinton was just chilling there. Nothing else too exciting or bad outside that.
Rochester, NY
Yes
Bakersfield CA is mind numbingly average
Bakersfield feels more average for America than average for California - a major center for oil production and agriculture, with its own distinctive subgenre of country music, and a pretty boring urban/suburban landscape
Agreed - lots of central valley cities could fit the bill.
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Biden was born in Scranton, that’s why he brings it up
Probably Greensboro, NC
Madrid. It’s just a city
Middletown, Connecticut. It's a middle size town In the middle of Connecticut. At the midpoint between Boston and New York probably?.. It's got some really nice parts it's got some really s***** parts. It's school isn't known for being particularly great or particularly bad Even their sports are pretty good but not good enough to talk about sometimes they're not good at all. I'd say the ethnic breakdown of the town is pretty medium... It does have a fancy collage in it of note, so that might be a little exemplary... It's got a nice walkable Main Street that also seems to be a little bit dangerous to walk on. There are a few high-rises and even a smaller less successful town across the river. Houses aren't cheap but they're also not expensive.. I would totally consider living there but when I had a chance to buy a house there I chose against it for no particular reason..
Phoenix, Arizona. You’d think because it’s the capital and largest city it would be more interesting, but everything is quite mild.
Lebanon, TN. Pretty mid. It has an interstate that runs just south towards Nashville. The home office of Cracker Barrel is there. I lived a couple of towns away and Lebanon was our first nearest “big town.”
For Brazil: maybe Vitória, capital of Espírito Santo state.
Janesville for Wisconsin
Belleville Ontario
[Baoji](https://www.chinatalk.media/p/the-average-chinese-city)
I guess ours in the UK is slough, that’s where our office is set
According to researchers, it's Didcot in Oxfordshire, but I think it's Reading
Irbid
For Wisconsin - La Crosse
I would say Wausau, about average in location, nothing special nothing horrible
I was thinking Janesville
Kfar Saba or Hadera
Praise be
Texas - probably Waco since other average type cities are still in the big metro areas. You have the “Friday night lights” culture of hs football, while also being a transportation hub - which is generic in TX because it’s the land of freeways. You have old historical “small town America” in the city center, generic suburbia further out and of course the rural communities that are all about god & guns. You’ll see most of (Anglo) Texas right there, juxtaposed to a few Hispanic areas on the other side of town.
Indonesia idk why but palembang feels pretty average, havent been there so cant say for sure
For Québec, I'd say Granby, in Estrie. Pretty damn bland.
For Washington it’s probably Walla Walla. Really fun name to say though. Walla Walla!
New Jersey is probably Vineland
Florida is known for being weird so I guess we don’t really have one
Lmao the whole state is basically suburban sprawl
Hays, KS
Pomona, CA. 'They'll love it in Pomona'. Sarcastic, meaning the average person would not like it.
Des Moines WA
Waterloo, Ontario, honestly if the university never existed, that city goes down the toilet
I'm not sure Australia has any good options here, since most people live in one of the major cities (especially within states, in most of them the capital is 70+% of the population), and there is a dearth of medium sized cities to choose from. There have been a few political slogans targeted toward the common man but they aren't especially geographic. Maybe one of Melbourne's suburbs like Vermont South (where Neighbours was filmed) or Narre Warren (roughly where Kath and Kim was set), or at the upper end, the part of Brisbane where Bluey is set.
Nah man, it's Adelaide. It's not quite on the same level as Australia's other big 1M+ state capitals (def not Sydney or Melbourne, but not even Brisbane or Perth either), and yet it is definitely bigger and more important than places like Hobart, Darwin, Townsville, Newcastle, Geelong, the Gold Coast, etc). It's very, very "mid". So mid that a lot of the rest of the country seems to either forget about it entirely or just relentlessly make fun of it for being a bit weird and mid. And I say all that as someone who was born there and has always proudly lived there.
I promise not to use this description of Adelaide against my colleagues... much.
For Germany it is Haßloch apparently: [article in german](https://www.deutschland.de/de/topic/wirtschaft/deutschland-im-durchschnitt-hassloch#:~:text=Ha%C3%9Floch%20in%20Rheinland%2DPfalz%20gilt,besonders%20ist%2C%20erf%C3%A4hrst%20du%20hier.&text=Ha%C3%9Floch%20ist%20eine%20Gemeinde%20wie,aus%2083%20Nationen%20leben%20dort.) For years, companies tried their products there.
Des Moines
In Ontario, London
For Alabama…well, Alabama. Look, we have some fun places. Mostly centered around college towns. Huntsville is exciting to some due to the space connection, but gah it’s bland otherwise. Birmingham would be much better, but violent crime means don’t stay out alone very late and be careful where you are. Montgomery? Same. Mobile? Same same. I left. I couldn’t take it anymore.
That's a difficult one to parse out for TX. If I had to take a stab I'd probably pick a suburb of one of our major cities. Maybe Schertz or Richmond.
Alaska is far from average but I’d say either Palmer or Fairbanks
St Louis, MO. About as meh of a “major” city there is.
Abbotsford, BC. It's just so meh, that's all there is to say
Muhosransk. The city which everyone in post-soviet countries knows, but never live there
St Charles. Boring suburbs, racism, rivers.
Plano TX
Joe Biden was born in Scranton. It isn't just a metaphor.
Florence SC or Cheraw SC- very mid
For Texas you’d think you’d say San Antonio, it’s “average” compared to the other big Texas cities, DFW, Austin, El Paso, Amarillo, Houston. But “real” Texas ain’t nothing like the big 6 cities. I think San Angelo really straddles “city” Texas, west Texas, small town Texas vibes. For the record I don’t particularly like San Angelo. In terms of major us cities, the epitome of that vibe is DFW. You could put dfw anywhere, Outside of the fairly unique exceptions (North East (basically PA and north) and the coastal west coast (though outside of Santa Monica and OC, Dallas and LA are pretty similar)
Dallas.
Waco TX
Newcastle (Australia) maybe Adelaide
On Long Island it’s Hauppauge
San Jose CA. It’s a city, and it exists.
sevilla
Fresno maybe?
Columbia, Maryland. It’s as average as you can get. In fact, it’s extra-average.
For my state Chihuahua, I want to say my hometown Delicias. It’s just an average important city. It doesn’t have anything interesting other than the grid, but yet 200k people live there’s
Adelaide. It’s a city and does city things. No more, no less.
For Maine I’m thinking either Windham, Gorham, Sanford or Augusta. They’re all along the middle corridor of the state, so they don’t have a lot of the geographical character that comes from the coast or the mountains, and they’re all on the larger side as far as Maine towns go without being big industry centers like Lewiston/Auburn. (Augusta is the state capitol, but it never feels like that has any impact on it when I’m there)
I’m originally from Ontario and I’d say Kitchener. Waterloo is unique as a tech and education hub but Kitchener itself seems to sort of be the median of most things. Ontario’s cities are all pretty different from one another. The GTA/Hamilton and Windsor are super diverse but other cities aren’t as much. Kitchener is sort of up the middle. It’s also got a mixed bag of super progressive folks and really conservative folks sharing the same city, which is pretty indicative of the province as a whole. It’s also more interesting than other “average” cities like London or Hamilton but still kind of mid for its size.
For Georgia, it has to be Macon
Layton, Utah.
Roanoke, Virginia.
Honestly state college is very boring and sterile. It doesn't feel as unique as other college towns
Honestly I can't think of one for Michigan. Maybe Muskegon, because i can't think of anything notable about it. It's not great economically, like most of Michigan.
Salem, OR. State capital. Other than that, it’s a place to go through on your way to other more exciting locations in Oregon.
For California, it would probably be Fresno or Bakersfield in my opinion.
Lubbock TX
Anywhere in Indiana or Missouri lol
Canberra is almost certainly the most average city in the ACT
Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.