Settlements are points tagged place=city, town, village or hamlet, usually with population.
The query
[out:json][timeout:60]; area["ISO3166-1"="IT"][admin_level=2]->.it; node["place"~"^(city|town)$"](area.it); out;
Run it
Live result from overpass.ch, cached for up to 12 hours. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
How it works
place=cityandplace=townare set by size and importance, not by legal status.populationis a tag on the same point. Many are copied from official statistics.
Variations
- Big cities only:
(if: number(t["population"]) >= 100000). - Capitals:
["capital"="yes"].
Run it from your code
curl https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter \
--data-urlencode 'data@query.overpassql'
import requests
query = open("query.overpassql").read()
r = requests.post("https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter",
data={"data": query}, timeout=120)
r.raise_for_status()
print(r.json()["elements"][:3])
const res = await fetch("https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter", {
method: "POST",
body: new URLSearchParams({ data: query }),
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(await res.text());
console.log(await res.json());
Save the query as query.overpassql. It works the same in Overpass Turbo, QGIS and JOSM.