Fun Facts ← back to map
Extracted from 18,058 subway stations and 45,861 airports in our dataset (after deduplication).
18,058
Subway stations
45,861
Airports
2.5:1
Airport to subway ratio
China owns the subway world
~8,500 stations (47% of all subway stations on earth) are in China.
| City | Stations |
|---|---|
| Shanghai | 816 |
| New York | 466 |
| Beijing | 420 |
| Seoul | 420 |
| Chengdu | 380 |
| Paris | 331 |
| Tokyo | 276 |
| London | 270 |
| Moscow | 243 |
Regional ratios
The global 2.5:1 ratio hides extreme regional variation:
| Region | Subways | Airports | Airports per subway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | 5 | 3,310 | 662:1 |
| Oceania | 37 | 2,639 | 71:1 |
| North America | 1,498 | 18,517 | 12:1 |
| South America | 742 | 6,976 | 9.4:1 |
| Europe | 4,516 | 7,017 | 1.6:1 |
| Asia | 11,029 | 6,257 | 0.6:1 — more subways than airports |
Geographic extremes
Subway stations
| Direction | Station |
|---|---|
| Northernmost | Mellunmäki — Helsinki, Finland (60.24°N) |
| Southernmost | Newport — Melbourne, Australia (37.84°S) |
| Easternmost | Martin Place — Sydney, Australia (151.21°E) |
| Westernmost | Keone'ae / UH West O'ahu — Honolulu, Hawai'i (158.05°W) |
Airports
| Direction | Airport |
|---|---|
| Northernmost | Ward Hunt Island — Canadian Arctic (83.09°N) |
| Southernmost | Jack F. Paulus Skiway — practically on the South Pole (89.99°S) |
| Easternmost | Rabi Island — Fiji (179.98°E) |
| Westernmost | Matei Airport — Fiji (179.88°W) |
The easternmost and westernmost airports are both in Fiji, ~4 km apart on either side of the 180th meridian.
Best airport names
- Batman Airport — Batman, Turkey
- Chicken Airport — Alaska (town population: ~7)
- Useless Loop Airstrip — Western Australia
- Dead Cow Field — North Carolina
- Dead Dog Airport — North Carolina
- Crazy Bob's Airport — Ohio
- Hell'er High Water Airport — California
- Deadhorse Airport — Prudhoe Bay, Alaska
Subway station quirks
- Stalingrad — Paris still has 2 metro stations named for the battle
- 栄 — Nagoya, Japan. A single kanji character meaning "prosperity"
- Sé — São Paulo. Shortest Latin-script station name (2 characters)
- Lehel — Munich. The only palindrome station name found
- 424 stations worldwide have no name at all
Most common names
| Subway stations | Airports |
|---|---|
| Olympic Center (17 stations) | "Pista" / runway (74 airports) |
| People's Square (14) | "Campo De Aterrizaje" / landing field (53) |
| Convention Center (13) | Johnson Airport (11) |
| Sports Center (13) | Hilltop Airport (9) |
| Central (9) | Miller Airport (9) |
Data cleanup
OpenStreetMap mappers often tag individual platforms, entrances, or line intersections as separate station nodes. We merge same-name stations within 500m into a single point. Here's what that removed:
| Dataset | Before | After | Removed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subways (strict) | 17,977 | 16,195 | 1,782 (9.9%) |
| Subways | 20,426 | 18,058 | 2,368 (11.6%) |
| All rail | 114,870 | 84,877 | 29,993 (26.1%) |
| Airports | 46,064 | 45,861 | 203 (0.4%) |
Tram and light rail stops had the most duplicates (26%). Airports were the cleanest. The worst offenders by city:
| City | Extra nodes | Typical cause |
|---|---|---|
| Marseille | 97 | Nearly every station had 5 nodes (one per entrance) |
| Singapore | 68 | Multiple platforms tagged as separate stations |
| Paris | 58 | Line intersections mapped as separate nodes |