Key:place

+/- place Description The place tag is used on a single node to mark the centre of a named settlement as well as on the whole area to mark its extent. Group Location Element help Used combinations in World Australia/Oceania Europe (list) Asia (list) Central America (list) South America (list) Africa (list)

Usage

See also: Place

Used to indicate that a particular location is known by a particular name, to indicate what sort of 'place' it is. A place tag should exist for every significant human settlements (city, town, suburb etc) and also for notable unpopulated but named places.

The simplest way to tag a places is to position a node at the recognised centre of the place which may be location of the town hall or central square or similar for a populated place. For larger settlements it is also usefully to provide information about the population=*.

It is also sometimes useful to define a boundary for a place by creating an Area and tagging it with the place tag. See Place for further information.

Values

See below for the main tag values

Key	Value	Element	Comment	Rendering	Photo
Populated urban areas
place	city		The largest urban settlements in the territory, normally including the national, state and provincial capitals. These are defined by charter or other governmental designation in some territories and are a matter of judgement in others. Should normally have a population of at least 100,000 people and be larger than nearby towns. See place=suburb and place=neighbourhood for how to tag areas within a city.
place	town		A second tier urban settlement of local importance, often with a population of 10,000 people and good range of local facilities including schools, medical facilities etc and traditionally a market. In areas of low population towns may have significantly lower populations. See place=neighbourhood and possibly also place=suburb for how to tag areas within a town.
place	village		A smaller distinct settlement, smaller than a town with few facilities available with people traveling to the nearby town to access these. Populations of villages vary widely in different territories but will nearly always be less than 10,000 people, often a lot less. See place=neighbourhood for how to tag areas within a larger village.
place	hamlet		A smaller rural community typically with some 100 inhabitants.
place	isolated_dwelling		For a named settlement consisting of only a few households in a rural setting.
place	farm		A distinct named individual farm. See also landuse=farmyard.)
place	suburb		A distinct section of an urban settlement (city, town, etc.) with its own name and identity. e.g. annexed towns or villages which were formerly independent, independent (or dependent) municipalities within a city or next to a much bigger town historical districts of settlements industrial districts or recreation areas within a settlements with specific names.
place	neighbourhood		A named part of a place=village, a place=town or a place=city. Smaller than place=suburb.
Other
place	continent		One of the seven continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America
place	country		See boundary=administrative
place	county		See boundary=administrative
place	island		Identifies an island, also consider place=islet for very small islands
place	locality		For an unpopulated named place.
place	region		See boundary=administrative
place	state		See boundary=administrative
place	User Defined		All commonly used values according to Taginfo
additional attributes
is_in	User Defined		For categorisation - for example place=suburb; name=Eccleshall; is_in=Sheffield,South Yorkshire,England,UK
population	Number		Number of inhabitants of the place. Among other things, it might be used in selecting which name to render at a given zoom level at what font size.
place_name	User Defined		Only for areas. For nodes use 'name' instead (see Notes). It may do no harm to use both, though.
place_numbers	User Defined		For property numbers. Note: Most people now use the Karlsruhe Schema instead of this tag.
postal_code	User Defined		The postal code. Note: Most people now use the Karlsruhe Schema instead of this tag.

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