Tag:place=suburb
 place = suburb
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| Description |
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A part of a town or city with a well-known or easily observable name.  
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| Group: places |
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| Useful combination |
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| Status: de facto |
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Use place=suburb to identify a major sub-division of a place=town or place=city with a distinct and recognised local name and identify. Suburbs may have uncertain boundaries and may overlap with other suburbs and are often best mapped using a node.
Use the tag place=neighbourhood for part of a suburb. There is an active proposal, (Feb 2012), Proposed features/place=quarter for for naming an area of a large settlement which is smaller than a suburb and larger than a neighbourhood.
Notes
- place=suburb is used in OpenStreetMap for all major top-level sub-divisions of a large settlement, including those in the urban core (in contrast North American English usage where the term is only used for an area, often residential, outside of the central city).
- The classification of an area as a suburb is based on its size and situation rather than by any clues given in its name. Greenwich village, (also known as 'the village') should therefore be tagged as a 'suburb'[1] (or possibly as a neighboroughhood?) and not as a 'village' given that it is now part of a major city.
How to Map
Place a node at the centre of the suburb tagged with place=suburb and identify it with a name=*. Alternatively a suburb can be identified with a closed way if the boundary is clearly defined.
Things to avoid
Areas of a town/city should not be tagged with place=town, place=village or place=hamlet which should only be used for distinct settlements. In circumstances where two towns run into each other it may be appropriate to tag each as a town if they have distinct and separate administrative structures.
See also
- place=neighbourhood for a part of a suburb
- Proposed features/place=quarter (for areas smaller than a suburb and larger than a neighboroughood
- is_in=* - describes a hierarchy where the suburb is located, the is_in-concept is generally considered outdated.
Related terms: ‹ village › ‹ suburb › ‹ fringe ›