The main reason for posting this is the fact that many here in reference to the United Republic of Nations mostly refer to Republic City and also only think about this country in the World of the Avatar as the size of a large metropolis, even if there is a map that shows it as taking most of the northwestern corner of the former Earth Kingdom. The creators did show other parts of the URN that weren’t its capital, but they really didn’t filled in most of the space that belongs to it at least in the context of the much more “contemporary” setting as some areas of the former Earth Kingdom (that now belong to the URN) were shown in the original yet they were not updated to the setting of Korra.
I could have seen Zaofu as another part of the United Republic and probably a rival city to Republic City (similar to the rivalry between Boston and NYC). However its founder's history within the URN didn't allow for that. So this leaves me wondering how urban is the URN? Yu Dao was talked about in the comics, which eventually becomes part of the United Republic, but does it stay with the same name or is it now Republic City because the first coalition government of the future URN was in Yu Dao inspiring the URN's Council or is Republic City a planned city and Yu Dao is just not as notable today which would be weird if true.
Republic City (biggest city and capital) and the United Republic are more similar to Mexico City (biggest city and capital) and Mexico, but not similar to New York City (biggest city not the capital) and the United States.