Late to the party on this one.

I did my best in large towns. Not big cities or small towns, but large towns.

The women aren't as militant leftist as in large cities, but still somewhat sexually liberated.

Larger cities increase anonymity and the ability to dispose of reputation. Better for high volume "training" if you are careful enough to keep your activities from being something that gets put on blast on social media.

Smaller towns are better for vetting, since so many people know each other, it becomes real damn hard for the town bicycle to hide that she is the town bicycle. The main problem is you need to build up at least a few good contacts first who will have your back and give you the down-low on people, if you didn't grow up there.

Use both for what they are good for depending on where you are at in your life. The ideal is to have your home base in a small town while being close enough to a large city to utilize its benefits. Small town girls especially like men they think are their ticket/vehicle to Big City life/excitement. Though you have to be careful about that, they can be ruthless gold diggers and social climbers who have had no choice but to get good at hiding it.

Bigger cities essentially have a never-ending flow of young women moving in for work/college. I found myself that age gap matters less in cities, even if you're like 29 and the girl is 21 you're both pretty much on a similar grind, the culture is more dilluted. That being said city can attract the worst of individuals and if you're serious about finding a mate you will realize there are a lot of landmines and a lot of degeneracy.

Also more opportunities for socializing, university/college alone will let you be around guys of similar interests - which is important to not go insane. In mid-size/small cities I found that there's just no people to meet via interests, my friends and acquitances are "generic friendships" where we talk about all sorts of shit whereas my friends from the big city share the same hobbies and career paths - something that's important to me as a I value growth and networking. In smaller cities there are no meetups nor events related to my pursuits so no chance to meet interesting people from my field.

Me personally - I'm studying and working 9-5 in a big city, I'm going to give my best shot at career and networking and I'm going to extract as much benefits from my current big city life before I move into a smaller and more calm city. I'm going to reap the rewards before it sucks my soul out. If I find a good girl to keep around that's a bonus too.

You can thrive anywhere if you try and there's no guarantee that you will benefit from either. Big cities offer more jobs and socialization simply due to them being an economical sinkhole. Smaller cities are about slow living and peace. You can be miserable in both, you can enjoy both.

I can speak from my experience in Los Angeles, arguably one of the biggest and most uninhibited dating pools on Earth.

Bigger does NOT make better! All dating parties have a vast pool of dating, and by extension, replacement candidates. Additionally, everyone has a vast social and geographic pool, to run from and conceal their past mistakes and present dalliance.

What smaller communities have to contrast this, also works hard against newcomers entering the social and dating pool. If you didn't go to High School there, many will consider you an outsider beyond age 80.

Hyperglycemia may give non local men a short term advantage, but this also filters out the women of higher LTR quality.

I think it's highly subjective to the area and the culture. I'm a big city type of guy.

I lived in Seattle for quite a while. Never had problems with getting laid or having dates, but the culture was way too liberal and socially it wasn't conducive to making good guy friends.

You'll pull good women everywhere, but you'll fare much better in an environment that makes you feel more like yourself or just happy.

My suggestion is figure out what type of place suits you, then date from there.

Worst case is you can always change your mind later.