OECD Programme Unlocking the potential of intermediary cities

Intermediary cities are small and mid-sized settlements playing a pivotal “bridging” role by connecting people, firms and communities across urban and rural areas. As territorial hubs, their functions extend beyond their administrative boundaries to serve surrounding urban and rural territories. For example, they strengthen urban-rural linkages by facilitating access to services, economic opportunities and markets. Intermediary cities play this “bridging” role in national urban systems through eight key functions.

Such “bridging” roles of intermediary cities depend on their geographical contexts. For instance, within rural and remote regions (often affected by depopulation, ageing and loss of talents), they by supply key services and opportunities (e.g. education, healthcare, jobs) to support regional development and well-being. Conversely, in highly urbanised regions dominated by large cities and their suburban areas, they can contribute to alleviate the negative effects of urban agglomeration, such as excessive cost of housing, congestion, and the like, and provide accessible services and their equitable provision for the urban population, including access by soft mobility and reduced dependency on car use. 

While intermediary cities have the potential to drive regional growth and territorial cohesion, many face substantial economic and capacity constraints. Some intermediary cities have opportunities to attract people and firms. They can also effectively promote a more balanced distribution of population, economic activity and opportunities across space, contributing to regional competitiveness, cohesion and sustainability. Successful intermediary cities are key hubs for innovation and research, being attractive for highly productive activities and highly skilled jobs. On the contrary, others face significant challenges such as the need for economic restructuring and investment, in the face of rising financial and capacity constraints. Many intermediary cities are managing decline as a result of economic structures based on traditional industrial sectors. This exacerbates social tensions and discontent.  

Despite the potential and the challenges of intermediary cities, policy attention has often overlooked them, focusing on large metropolitan areas. This represents a missed opportunity.

OECD work on unlocking the potential of intermediary cities for regional development aims to provide theoretical contributions, empirical results and case-study applications, to better understand the challenges and potential of intermediary cities – both standalone and as systems – and guide policies to achieve balanced and sustainable development. 

The OECD Programme Unlocking the potential of intermediary cities supports countries, regions and cities to take advantage of opportunities presented to intermediary cities, and tackle the challenges these cities face.