The award of city status is typically granted to a local authority, whose administrative area is then considered to be the formal borders of the city. By this definition, the whole community area of St Davids and the Cathedral Close, including the settlement of St Davids, its surrounding rural area, and islands off the coast, is considered to be within the city. St Davids contains the lowest population of all the cities of the UK, and has the smallest urban area, at . However, with the formal city area defined by its community council extent of , this sizeable expanse including offshore islands mean that several UK cities are smaller in area, with the City of London being the smallest at . In Wales, St Davids is the third smallest after the community areas of St Asaph with and Bangor with .
the award of city status is typically granted to a local authority whose administrative area is then considered to be the formal borders of the city by this definition the whole community area of st davids and the cathedral close including the settlement of st davids its surrounding rural area and islands off the coast is considered to be within the city st davids contains the lowest population of all the cities of the uk and has the smallest urban area at  however with the formal city area defined by its community council extent of  this sizeable expanse including offshore islands mean that several uk cities are smaller in area with the city of london being the smallest at  in wales st davids is the third smallest after the community areas of st asaph with and bangor with 