Help with dono, and dochira no

[Joey]

In Beginner Lesson 73 one line is
"Toukyou to kyouto wa dochira no jinkou ga ooi desu ka?"
My question is what would be the difference in using dono instead of dochira no?
i.e. "Toukyou to kyouto wa dono jinkou ga ooi desu ka?"
Thanks in advance!

[Jason]

You can't use どの here because you're talking about places. どの can't be used with places. Only どこ and どちら. Actually, I'm not sure if you could use どこ either since you're only talking about 2 cities.

[Joey]

oh I see,
so if there were muliple cities you could "doko no"?
Assuming thats correct are there any big differences between using dochira no and doko no?

[Jason]

Yes. So you could say something like:

東京と京都と大阪の中でどこの人口が多いですか。

When used in a comparative sentence, どちら can only be used (and has to be used) when comparing exactly 2 things.

[Joey]

Thank you for clearing that up for me!