Largest Urban Areas
- Countries statistical methods and definitions of urban areas are not consistent so rank and density vary considerably. We've used averages from 5 different sources estimating 2006-2010 populations to construct the table below.
There are 6 countries within 7% of each other from 18.9 million to 20.3 million, so small differences in estimates can result in big ranking differences. The detail table following shows some of the variation.
Rankings based on an average of all of them, the UN and the book below are: (2003-2010 data)
| City | Population | Growth
Rate |
| 1 | Tokyo | 32,814,000 | 0.19% |
| 2 | Mumbai (Bombay) | 20,165,000 | 2.29% |
| 3 | Mexico City | 19,553,000 | 0.82% |
| 4 | Delhi | 19,831,000 | 3.51% |
| 5 | Sao Paulo | 19,842,000 | 1.12% |
| 5 | New York-Newark | 19,328,000 | 0.47% |
| 7 | Jakarta | 18,589,000 | 3.04% |
| 8 | Seoul-Incheon | 17,341,000 | 0.02% |
| 9 | Shanghai | 16,245,000 | 0.36% |
| 10 | Dhaka, Bangladesh | 14,478,100 | 4.07% |
| 11 | Kolkata (Calcutta) | | 1.67% |
| 12 | Los Angeles-
Long Beach-Santa Ana | | 0.62% |
| 13 | Karachi | | 3.25% |
| 14 | Metro Manila | | 1.58% |
| 15 | Buenos Aires | | 0.62% |
| 16 | Moscow | | 0% |
| 17 | lagos | | 4.16% |
| 18 | Bejing | 12,575,000 | 0.49% |
Note: Rank average and population av. are not exactly aligned because some rankings did not include population.
Growth Note: A 1/2% per year growth will result in a 5% increase in 10 years while a 4.2%/year growth will result in a 50% increase in 10 years.
Detail data:
The population and area are from source 1. see below.
| Rank * | City | Population
1. | Area (km2)
1. | Density people/km2 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Urban
Agglom. | Metro
areas | Urban
Areas |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Tokyo | 36,669,000 | 13,500 | 2,716 | 4,049 | 4,100 |
| 4 | 2 | 5 | 3 | Mumbai (Bombay) | 20,041,000 | 1,097 | 18,269 | 8,170 | 27,400 |
| 2 | (4) | 8 | 4 | Delhi | 22,157,000 | 5,845 | 3,791 | 5,845 | 14,700 |
| 3 | 6 | 7 | 7 | São Paulo | 20,262,000 | 8,050 | 2,517 | 8,479 | 5,400 |
| 5 | 3 | 3 | 9 | Mexico City | 19,460,000 | 7,815 | 2,490 | 2,784 | 7,400 |
| 6 | 5 | 4 | 6 | New York-Newark | 19,425,000 | 8,683 | 2,237 | 1,104 | 1,800 |
| (7) | (7) | 2 | 8 | Seoul-Incheon | (19,000,000) | 1,943 | 9,779 | 4,048 | 10,200 |
| (8) | | 6 | 2 | Jakarta | (18,900,000) | 5,100 | 3,706 | 3,706 | 8,500 |
| 9 | 8 | 10 | 10 | Shanghai | 16,575,000 | 3,920 | 4,228 | 3,216 | 6,300 |
| 10 | ? | 14 | 13 | Kolkata (Calcutta) | 15,552,000 | 1,026 | 15,158 | 8,459 | 17,600 |
| 11 | | | 25 | Dhaka, Bangladesh | 14,648,000 | 1,600 | 9,155 | | 41,200 |
| 12 | | 20 | 20 | Karachi | 13,125,000 | 3,530 | 3,718 | 14,900 | 10,727 |
| 13 | | 21 | 17 | Buenos Aires | 13,074,000 | 4,758 | 2,748 | 4,800 | 1,210 |
| 14 | | 13 | 14 | Los Angeles-
Long Beach-Santa Ana | 12,762,000 | 4,320 | 2,954 | 1,415 | 2,500 |
| 15 | | 19 | 16 | Beijing | 12,385,000 | 7,860 | 1,576 | 1,905 | 4,200 |
| 16 | | 22 | | Rio de Janeiro | 11,950,000 | 5,000 | 2,390 | 5,600 | |
| 17 | | 11 | 5 | Metro Manila | 11,628,000 | 640 | 18,169 | 6,466 | 14,600 |
| 18 | | 9 | 12 | Osaka-Kobe | 11,337,000 | 1,220 | 9,293 | 2,507 | 5,300 |
| 19 | 7 | 16 | 11 | Al-Qahirah (Cairo) | 11,001,000 | 6,640 | 1,657 | | |
| 20 | 8 | | 27 | Lagos, Nigeria | 10,578,000 | 640 | 16,528 | | 9,500 |
| 21 | | 15 | 17 | Moskva (Moscow) | 10,550,000 | 1,080 | 9,769 | 1,005 | 3,000 |
| 22 | | | | Istanbul | 10,525,000 | 1,830 | 5,751 | | |
| 30 | 9 | 18 | 29 | London | 8,631,000 | 1,620 | 5,328 | 1,130 | 5,300 |
* Sources:
1. Urban agglomerations at Wikipedia, 2009
Seoul and Jakarta which only had city data were adjusted for metro areas.
2. Human Population: Urbanization - Population Reference Bureau, 2000 (projected to 2010)
Note: They only listed 9 cities with growth trends. Some cities in the top 10 were omitted. The numbers in () are interpolated from other rankings.
3. List of urban areas by population - Wikipedia, 2010 (projected)
4. List of metropolitan areas by population - Wikipedia, 2003
City 5. Mayors: World's largest urban areas in 2006
6. Handbook of urban studies, 2001, By Ronan Paddison
Data from 1. was based on the World Urbanization Prospects, The 2009 Revision from the UN.
We used data from other sources for Jakarta and Seoul, because the UN data only included the city proper.
New York Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA) data from the US Census Bureau, shows how the New York population is distributed.
The UN definition of "Urban agglomerations" - Refers to the de facto population contained within the contours of a contiguous territory inhabited at urban density levels without regard to administrative boundaries. It usually incorporates the population in a city or town plus that in the sub-urban areas lying outside of but being adjacent to the city boundaries.
Virtually all population growth from now until 2030 will be concentrated in the urban areas of the world. In 2008-2009, the number of urban dwellers exceeded the number of rural dwellers for the first time in history.
Books:
Handbook of urban studies, 2001, By Ronan Paddison
See: Ancient Cities List
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last updated 10 Apr 2011
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