diff --git a/layers/place/README.md b/layers/place/README.md
index 0e997ab8..a3ec52d2 100644
--- a/layers/place/README.md
+++ b/layers/place/README.md
@@ -9,10 +9,10 @@ We suggest you use different font styles and sizes to create a text hierarchy.
 
 - **name_en**: The english `name:en` value if available.
 - **name**: The OSM [`name`](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:name) value of the POI.
-- **rank**: Countries, states and the most important cities all have a `rank` field ranging from `1` to `6` which
-marks the importance of the feature. Less important places do not have a `rank`.
-Use this to build a text hierarchy. The rank value originates from Natural Earth data and is either the
-original `scalerank` for cities or the original `labelrank` for countries and states.
+- **rank**: Countries, states and the most important cities all have a `rank` to boost their importance on the map.
+The `rank` field for counries and states ranges from `1` to `6` while the `rank` field for
+cities ranges from `1` to `10`. Use the `rank` field to build a text hierarchy.
+The rank value is a combination of the Natural Earth `scalerank`, `labelrank` and `datarank` values.
 - **class**: Distinguish between `country`, `state` and other city classes like
 `city`, `town`, `village`, `hamlet`, `suburb`, `neighbourhood` or `isolated_dwelling`.
 Use this to separately style the different places according to their importance (usually country and state different
diff --git a/layers/place/merge_city_rank.sql b/layers/place/merge_city_rank.sql
index db3d7ee6..0b98598d 100644
--- a/layers/place/merge_city_rank.sql
+++ b/layers/place/merge_city_rank.sql
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 WITH important_city_point AS (
-    SELECT osm.geometry, osm.osm_id, osm.name, osm.name_en, ne.scalerank
+    SELECT osm.geometry, osm.osm_id, osm.name, osm.name_en, ne.scalerank, ne.labelrank
     FROM ne_10m_populated_places AS ne, osm_city_point AS osm
     WHERE
     (
@@ -18,7 +18,11 @@ WITH important_city_point AS (
     AND ST_DWithin(ne.geom, osm.geometry, 50000)
 )
 UPDATE osm_city_point AS osm
-SET "rank" = ne.scalerank
+-- Normalize both scalerank and labelrank into a ranking system from 1 to 10.
+-- Scaleranks for NE populated place range from 0 to 8 and labelranks range from 0 to 10.
+-- To give features with both ranks close to 0 a lower rank we increase the range from 1 to 9 and 1 to 11.
+-- This means a max combined rank of 20 divided by 2 to get us uniform ranking from 1 to 10
+SET "rank" = CEILING((ne.scalerank + 1 + ne.labelrank + 1)/2.0)
 FROM important_city_point AS ne
 WHERE osm.osm_id = ne.osm_id;
 
diff --git a/layers/place/merge_country_rank.sql b/layers/place/merge_country_rank.sql
index 8e0a2f2c..ac1bfd57 100644
--- a/layers/place/merge_country_rank.sql
+++ b/layers/place/merge_country_rank.sql
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
+ALTER TABLE osm_country_point DROP CONSTRAINT IF EXISTS osm_country_point_rank_constraint;
+
 WITH important_country_point AS (
-    SELECT osm.geometry, osm.osm_id, osm.name, COALESCE(NULLIF(osm.name_en, ''), ne.name) AS name_en, ne.labelrank
+    SELECT osm.geometry, osm.osm_id, osm.name, COALESCE(NULLIF(osm.name_en, ''), ne.name) AS name_en, ne.scalerank, ne.labelrank
     FROM ne_10m_admin_0_countries AS ne, osm_country_point AS osm
     WHERE
     -- We only match whether the point is within the Natural Earth polygon
@@ -10,17 +12,16 @@ WITH important_country_point AS (
     AND ne.scalerank <= 1
 )
 UPDATE osm_country_point AS osm
--- We merge the labelrank not scalerank because it is more fine grained
--- and allows styling more important countries bigger than others
-SET "rank" = ne.labelrank
+-- Normalize both scalerank and labelrank into a ranking system from 1 to 6
+-- Scaleranks for NE countries range from 0 to 6 and labelranks range from 2 to 10.
+-- This means a max combined rank of 16 divided by 3 to get us uniform ranking from 1 to 6
+SET "rank" = CEILING((scalerank + labelrank)/3.0)
 FROM important_country_point AS ne
 WHERE osm.osm_id = ne.osm_id;
 
 UPDATE osm_country_point AS osm
 SET "rank" = 6
-WHERE "rank" <= 0 OR "rank" > 6 OR "rank" IS NULL;
+WHERE "rank" < 0 OR "rank" > 6 OR "rank" IS NULL;
 
-ALTER TABLE osm_country_point DROP CONSTRAINT IF EXISTS osm_country_point_rank_constraint;
 ALTER TABLE osm_country_point ADD CONSTRAINT osm_country_point_rank_constraint CHECK("rank" BETWEEN 1 AND 6);
-
-CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS osm_country_point_rank_idx ON osm_country_point("rank");
+CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS osm_country_point_rank_idx ON osm_country_point("rank");
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/layers/place/merge_state_rank.sql b/layers/place/merge_state_rank.sql
index 054c9df7..20ebc8b4 100644
--- a/layers/place/merge_state_rank.sql
+++ b/layers/place/merge_state_rank.sql
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
+ALTER TABLE osm_state_point DROP CONSTRAINT IF EXISTS osm_state_point_rank_constraint;
+
 WITH important_state_point AS (
-    SELECT osm.geometry, osm.osm_id, osm.name, COALESCE(NULLIF(osm.name_en, ''), ne.name) AS name_en, ne.scalerank, ne.labelrank
+    SELECT osm.geometry, osm.osm_id, osm.name, COALESCE(NULLIF(osm.name_en, ''), ne.name) AS name_en, ne.scalerank, ne.labelrank, ne.datarank
     FROM ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces_shp AS ne, osm_state_point AS osm
     WHERE
     -- We only match whether the point is within the Natural Earth polygon
@@ -9,17 +11,14 @@ WITH important_state_point AS (
     AND ne.scalerank <= 3 AND ne.labelrank <= 2
 )
 UPDATE osm_state_point AS osm
--- We merge the labelrank not scalerank because it is more fine grained
-SET "rank" = ne.labelrank
+-- Normalize both scalerank and labelrank into a ranking system from 1 to 6.
+-- Scaleranks for NE states range from 2 to 11 and labelranks range from 0 to 20 and dataranks from 1 to 11.
+-- This means a max combined rank of 42 divided by 7 to get us uniform ranking from 1 to 6
+SET "rank" = CEILING((scalerank + labelrank + datarank)/7.0)
 FROM important_state_point AS ne
 WHERE osm.osm_id = ne.osm_id;
 
-UPDATE osm_state_point AS osm
-SET "rank" = 6
-WHERE "rank" <= 0 OR "rank" > 6;
-
 DELETE FROM osm_state_point WHERE "rank" IS NULL;
 
-ALTER TABLE osm_state_point DROP CONSTRAINT IF EXISTS osm_state_point_rank_constraint;
 ALTER TABLE osm_state_point ADD CONSTRAINT osm_state_point_rank_constraint CHECK("rank" BETWEEN 1 AND 6);
 CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS osm_state_point_rank_idx ON osm_state_point("rank");
diff --git a/layers/place/place.yaml b/layers/place/place.yaml
index f09c8719..789ad18c 100644
--- a/layers/place/place.yaml
+++ b/layers/place/place.yaml
@@ -14,10 +14,10 @@ layer:
         Use this to separately style the different places according to their importance (usually country and state different
         than cities).
     rank: |
-        Countries, states and the most important cities all have a `rank` field ranging from `1` to `6` which
-        marks the importance of the feature. Less important places do not have a `rank`.
-        Use this to build a text hierarchy. The rank value originates from Natural Earth data and is either the
-        original `scalerank` for cities or the original `labelrank` for countries and states.
+        Countries, states and the most important cities all have a `rank` to boost their importance on the map.
+        The `rank` field for counries and states ranges from `1` to `6` while the `rank` field for
+        cities ranges from `1` to `10`. Use the `rank` field to build a text hierarchy.
+        The rank value is a combination of the Natural Earth `scalerank`, `labelrank` and `datarank` values.
   buffer_size: 128
   datasource:
     geometry_field: geometry