Largest Cities in the world mapped

June 26, 2015 Alex

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According to definition, a city is a contiguous geographic territory with at least 50 thousand residents at an average population density of 1.5 thousand people per square kilometer.

There are approximately 10,000 cities in the world, in which nowadays about 57% percent of humanity lives. According to the United Nations (UN), there are 81 cities with a population of over 5 million people on our planet.

Table of Contents

The largest cities by country
Largest cities throughout history
- Top 10 the most populated cities before the common era
The largest cities in the future

The largest cities by country

Tokyo in Japan is the largest city by population globally, with an estimated more than 14 million residents (the metropolitan area of Greater Tokyo has a population of about 38 million). No wonder that the most populated cities worldwide are located in the two most populated nations globally, China and India.

Top 20 cities by population

Rank	City	Country	Population
1	Tokyo	Japan	37,400,068
2	Delhi	India	28,514,000
3	Shanghai	China	25,582,000
4	São Paulo	Brazil	21,650,000
5	Mexico City	Mexico	21,581,000
6	Cairo	Egypt	20,076,000
7	Mumbai	India	19,980,000
8	Beijing	China	19,618,000
9	Dhaka	Bangladesh	19,578,000
10	Osaka	Japan	19,281,000
11	New York	United States	18,819,000
12	Karachi	Pakistan	15,400,000
13	Buenos Aires	Argentina	14,967,000
14	Chongqing	China	14,838,000
15	Istanbul	Turkey	14,751,000
16	Kolkata	India	14,681,000
17	Manila	Philippines	13,482,000
18	Lagos	Nigeria	13,463,000
19	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	13,293,000
20	Tianjin	China	13,215,000

The number of the top 200 largest cities per nation

The map below shows the number of the top 200 largest cities per country. China, India, the United States, and Brazil have the most cities in the top 200 most populated cities globally.

Map of Top 200 Largest Cities Per Country

Most populous city in each 10-degree rectangle

The unusual map below created by Vexillographer using data gathered from Citypopulation.de, Encyclopedia Britannica, Rosstat, Statistics Canada, and the United States Census Bureau shows the most populous city, town, or other settlement, for each 10° by 10° area of the world.

Permanently inhabited cities and towns on this map showed in black. Other types of settlements populated year-round by temporary staff (e.g., scientific research stations and military bases) are gray. Small caps are used for small islands generally counted like cities or towns for statistical purposes. Unlabeled rectangles with land are either uninhabited or appear to lack permanent towns. Squares with no dry land are in dark blue.

Legal city limits were used whenever possible, as statistics are usually more consistent for “cities proper” than for varyingly defined “metropolitan areas.” If a Census figure was unknown or older than ten years, estimates and educated guesses were sometimes used. Cities split by these 10° lat-long lines are “placed” in whichever rectangle contains its city hall or downtown core.

Most populous city in each 10-degree rectangle

Largest cities throughout history

Alexandria, Rome, and Baghdad have been the first cities to have one million people, as early as 100 BCE or as late as 925 AD. They were later exceeded by Constantinople, Chang’an, Hangzhou, Jinling, Beijing, London. London was the first city with a population of 2 million, and New York was the first city with 10 million. In the middle of the 20th century, Tokyo took the crown as the most populous city globally.

The animated map below created by International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) shows how cities with a population of more than 500 thousand have appeared one by one over 230 years.

Here is another animated map showing the world’s largest cities from 3000 BC to the present day.

The map below shows countries that once hosted the largest city in the world.

Countries that once hosted the largest city in history mapped

Top 10 the most populated cities before the common era

Rank	City	Present location	Population	Year
1	Alexandria	Egypt	1,000,000	100 BCE
2	Carthage	Tunisia	500,000	300 BCE
3	Xiadu	China	320,000	400 BCE
4	Babylon	Iraq	200,000	500 BCE
5	Luoyi	China	200,000	500 BCE
6	Linzi	China	200,000	500 BCE
7	Pi-Ramses	Egypt	160,000	1200 BCE
8	Haojing	China	125,000	800 BCE
9	Thebes	Egypt	120,000	1000 BCE
10	Yinxu	China	120,000	1300 BCE

The largest cities in the future

Many of today’s megacities will lose their leading positions to the fast-growing cities of the developing world. Currently, the fastest-growing cities are concentrated in Africa and Asia. The map below created by Kate Berg shows the 100 fastest-growing cities in the whole world expected in 2025 – 2030.

In 2100 thirteen African cities will surpass New York City in size over the next 80 years. Many American cities such as Houston, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. will fall out of the top 100 of the most populated cities in the world by 2100.

The animated map below created by visualcapitalist.com shows the world’s 20 most populous megacities from 2010 to 2100.