Methodology · what counts as a city
Rhode Island cities follow the V1 universe.
Rhode Island cities follow the same V1 universe: incorporated places, consolidated city-county governments where applicable, and Washington DC where applicable. Census-designated places (CDPs) are excluded, with one named national exception — Urban Honolulu (Honolulu only). State ranks are standard competition ranking (“1224”) within Rhode Island: tied cities share the lower rank and the next rank is skipped. Ranks are pre-computed in the dataset (state_rank_pop_2024).
Note: Rhode Island is an MCD (minor civil division) state. Many residents live in towns and townships, which PEP does not estimate annually. This page lists only the incorporated places PEP covers — the small city count reflects that governance structure, not a data gap. See the full methodology for details.