Partitioning V schema

Hi List

I am looking for some general advice about the best was of splitting a
large data table,I have 2 different choices, partitioning or different
schemas.

The data table refers to the number of houses that can be include in a
city, as such there are large number of records.

I am wondering if decided to partition the table if the update
speed/access might be faster that just declaring a different schema per
city.

Under the partition the data table would appear to be smaller, so I
should get an increase in speed, but the database still have to do some
sort of indexing.

If I used different schemas, it resolves data protection issues, but
doing a backup might become a nightmare

In general which is the fast access method?

regards

Dave.