This tool answers a question a map alone cannot: which settlements actually sit inside a given area? Drop a point, choose a radius, and you get back every city, town and village that falls within it — anywhere in the world — as a list you can sort and export.
If a circle is the wrong shape for the job, draw your own outline instead and search inside that. Either way the result is a real list of named places rather than a picture of an area.
How it works
Results come from OpenStreetMap: 1.67 million settlements across 207 countries. Each row carries the place name, its type, its coordinates and its population where OpenStreetMap records one.
Population is the one field that is genuinely patchy — OpenStreetMap has no figure for roughly three quarters of places. Those rows show a dash rather than an estimate, so you always know the difference between a small population and an unknown one.
How to use the Places in a Radius
- 1
Set the centre
Click a point on the map, or search for a place by name, to fix the centre of your search.
- 2
Choose a radius, or draw an area
Pick how far out to search. If a circle does not suit the job, switch to drawing a polygon and search inside that instead.
- 3
Filter by settlement size
Narrow to cities only, widen to towns and cities, or include every settlement down to villages.
- 4
Export the list
Download the matching places as CSV for a spreadsheet, or as GeoJSON to bring into other mapping software.
What people use it for
Site and catchment planning
See which towns fall inside a delivery radius, a service area or a proposed branch catchment before committing to a location.
Sales and field territories
Build a named list of settlements around each depot or rep, and hand it over as a spreadsheet.
Events and logistics
Work out which places sit inside a travel radius of a venue, and how large they are where population is recorded.
Research and analysis
Pull a reproducible list of settlements inside a study area, with coordinates, for further work in a GIS tool.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the place data come from?
- OpenStreetMap — 1.67 million cities, towns and villages across 207 countries. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence.
- Why is the population column sometimes a dash?
- OpenStreetMap does not record a population for most places. Rather than guess a number, the tool shows a dash so you can tell an unknown value from a genuinely small one.
- Can I search a shape that is not a circle?
- Yes. Switch from radius mode to drawing, outline any area on the map, and the search runs inside that outline instead.
- What can I do with the results?
- Export them as CSV for a spreadsheet, or as GeoJSON to open in other mapping software. Each row includes the name, type, coordinates and population where one is recorded.