Rethinking ‘suburban’: on the regional perception of the suburban concept across the world

Abstract Urban gradients vary widely across cities globally, yet standardized definitions remain elusive for sites along these gradients, particularly for the term ‘suburban’. This study investigated how those publishing in the urban ecology literature defined ‘suburban’, with regard to the geographic location, economic features, and urban (i.e., built cover) intensity of the referenced site, and how these definitions varied across the world. We analyzed digital survey responses from 431 researchers from 67 countries. Findings indicated that ‘suburban’ was commonly associated with low-human and building density residential areas on the urban periphery, characterized by greenspaces, automobile dependence, and functional links between urban and non-urban zones. Economic interpretations differed regionally—Northern American and Western European scholars associated ‘suburban’ with affluence, while Southern European and Latin American respondents described lower-income suburban areas. Hierarchical clustering of definitions revealed five major regional perspectives, with the most distinct interpretations found in Africa and Latin America. The study highlights the lack of a universal definition of ‘suburban’ and initiates an important conversation about the cultural and contextual nuances of this term, providing a foundation for future efforts to clarify terminology, mitigate ambiguities, and improve comparability in global urban ecology research.