Does the definition of a town verses city matter in population?

[Bruce]

Washington keeps it simple: incorporated places with less than 1,500 residents are towns, and anything above has to be organized into one of several categories of city (first class, second class, code, or unclassified). No named townships, villages, hamlets, etc.

The kicker is that upgrading/downgrading from city/town requires some action, so there's 5 towns that are over the 1,500 threshold and 36 cities below it.

[empirestate]

I noticed that some states that define a city, town, village, or township, seem to not treat them the same in statistical documents.  Even someone on here said one town on Long Island can't be ranked in the City population statistics or that municipality would be larger than another city nearby.

From this example, and given that you're referring to population, it sounds like you're thinking of Census Bureau rankings, which are defined not by the states but by the Federal government. The critical thing to understand here is the distinction between "places" and "county subdivisions". I've written about this a bunch before, and the census has a lot of information on its website (I recommend starting with chapters 8 and 9 here), so I won't add a lot more now.

In short, the two categories aren't compared because they aren't directly comparable. The town of Hempstead that you're probably thinking of is a county subdivision–in this case a "minor civil division" because it has a legal or administrative function. It contains a number of "places"–some incorporated (villages, in this instance) and some unincorporated. Those places are what get ranked alongside the "place" called New York (a city).

Likewise, the minor civil division "Hempstead" (a town) gets ranked alongside other minor civil divisions in the state, which together account for all of its land. (The MCDs that coincide with the city of New York are the five boroughs, each coincident with a county–that is, a county with a single subdivision.)

Now, it so happens that the entities called "towns", in New York State, are MCDs.  In other states, towns are a type of place, like cities. And in some cases, the definition of these different types is indeed based on population. Sometimes the classification is automatic, sometimes its elective, and the Census Bureau does collect and refer to these designations in its statistical data. But as far as population rankings, the determining factor is always place versus county subdivision.

Community – This could be similar to a village, except without much of an identity unto itself–like a more distinct version of a neighborhood.  These are places that likely don't even have a road sign telling you you're there, but they do have a name.

In New York we call that a hamlet.

Sounds to me more like his definition of "village".

I think the city/town/village/hamlet/municipality/whatever debate is really silly, and I don't think it matters much.

What's to debate? Those terms all have definitions–yes, many different definitions, depending on location, context, etc. But once everyone understands what's being spoken about, there should be no controversy. (So yeah, I guess I'd agree that it's silly!)

[frankenroad]

In Ohio, incorporated places over 5,000 population are cities, and under 5,000 are villages.   Every place not in a city or village is in a township.   Townships never span county lines, but cities and villages can and do.  There are at least 2 cities in Ohio that are spread over three counties, Fremont and Loveland.   Town has no legal standing in Ohio.

Funny story about Indian Hill.  When its population exceeded 5,000, they were so adamant about remaining a village that they changed the official name of the (now) city to "The Village of Indian Hill"

[WillWeaverRVA]

Current law in Virginia requires areas aspiring to become independent cities to have a population of at least 5,000, while areas seeking to become incorporated towns must have a population of at least 1,000. The only exception is in counties exceeding a population density of 1,000 people per square mile (in Henrico, Arlington, and Fairfax counties), where no new municipalities can be created.

Of course, there are cities with populations of less than 5,000 (the City of Norton has about 3,900 people), and towns with populations way less than 1,000 (the Town of Clinchport has a population of 67).

Other than cities and towns, Virginia mainly has unincorporated CDPs, some of which are larger than a lot of cities and towns in terms of population.

[oscar]

In Canada's Manitoba province, urban municipalities (which generally have populations over 1000, the minimum required for new municipalities) can call themselves either a town or a village. But only if the population exceeds 7500 can it become a city.