Our cities are growing rapidly – there’s no doubt about that. Almost half of the world’s 8.2 billion people live in cities (according to the World Urbanisation Prospects 2025 report) and while back in 1975 only eight of them could be considered ‘mega’ – that means they’re home to more than 10 million people – today, there are 33.
Of those 33, 19 are in Asia, and while Tokyo held the crown as the world’s largest city for the last few years, it’s now been overtaken by Jakarta, according to a UN report. Indonesia’s capital is home to a staggering 42 million people – it’s a megacity four times over.
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What are the other largest cities in the world?
The rejig of the ranking is partly due to changes in the criteria. There are now much clearer definitions of what a city, town and a rural area actually are, according to the Guardian. Based on this, Jakarta technically took over back in 2010.
Closely following with a population of 36 million is Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, and Tokyo now sits in third place. Following is New Delhi, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Cairo, Manila, Kolkata and Seoul.
Is every city’s population set to grow?
While cities expanding might conjure images of prosperity and accompanying economic growth, Jakarta buckles under being home to so many people. On top of being prone to earthquakes, the city is often flooded, overcrowded, and according to NBC, rapidly sinking.
However, the report suspects that based on current projections, Dhaka will be the world’s largest city by 2050 with a massive population of 52.1 million, but not everywhere is set to grow. In fact, in a reflection of Japan’s ageing population crisis, Tokyo’s population is set to shrink by 2.7 million by mid-century.
More on city life
We recently crowned our list of the coolest streets in the world, but you can also have a look at our roundups of the coolest neighbourhoods and best cities for 2025.
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