World City Populations
Top 20 cities of the world with the highest populations. Classifying the exact population in a particular city can be difficult because the borders of some cities are ill-defined. Many cities sprawl over a very large area encompassing smaller towns and cities in the process. For clarity I've included 2 tables of world city populations, the first contains data which is supposed to represent the populations living in the most well defined urban centre of the city. The second table lists city population in the metropolitan area which includes the surrounding suburbs and urban sprawl of the city.
Urban city population
| Rank | City | Country | Population (Urban - City Limits) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shanghai | China | 14,608,512 |
| 2 | Mumbai (Bombay) | India | 12,691,836 |
| 3 | Karachi | Pakistan | 11,624,219 |
| 4 | Buenos Aires | Argentina | 11,574,205 |
| 5 | Dilli (Delhi) | India | 10,927,986 |
| 6 | Manila | Philippines | 10,444,527 |
| 7 | Moscow | Russia | 10,381,222 |
| 8 | Seoul | Korea (South) | 10,349,312 |
| 9 | Sao Paulo | Brazil | 10,21,295 |
| 10 | Istanbul | Turkey | 9,792,428 |
| 11 | Lagos | Nigeria | 8,789,120 |
| 12 | Mexico City | Mexico | 8,657,50 |
| 13 | Jakarta | Indonesia | 8,540,121 |
| 14 | Tokyo | Japan | 8,336,599 |
| 15 | New York | United States of America | 8,107,916 |
| 16 | Kinshasa | Congo (Dem. Rep.) | 7,785,965 |
| 17 | Lima | Peru | 7,737,2 |
| 18 | Cairo | Egypt | 7,734,614 |
| 19 | Peking | China | 7,480,601 |
| 20 | London | United Kingdom | 7,421,209 |
Metropolitan Area / City Population
Populations of cities including the urban sprawl around the city. Sometimes several cities and towns are grouped into a metropolitan area because no clear borders are found between them. One city sprawls into another.
| Rank | Metropolitan Area / City | Country | Population (Metropolitan - includes surrounding suburbs) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tokyo | Japan | 36,511,740 |
| 2 | New York | United States of America | 22,313,756 |
| 3 | Mexico | Mexico | 22,92,696 |
| 4 | Seoul | Korea (South) | 21,738,345 |
| 5 | Mumbai | India | 19,468,950 |
| 6 | Sao Paulo | Brazil | 19,91,770 |
| 7 | Jakarta | Indonesia | 17,593,429 |
| 8 | Los Angeles | United States of America | 17,542,279 |
| 9 | Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto | Japan | 17,514,449 |
| 10 | Dilli (Delhi) | India | 17,476,68 |
| 11 | Manila | Philippines | 16,608,149 |
| 12 | al-Qa-hirah | Egypt | 15,502,478 |
| 13 | Shanghai | China | 14,608,512 |
| 14 | Kolkata (Calcutta) | India | 14,452,498 |
| 15 | Moscow | Russia | 14,435,176 |
| 16 | Buenos Aires | Argentina | 13,325,866 |
| 17 | London | United Kingdom | 12,415,310 |
| 18 | Tehran | Iran | 11,887,360 |
| 19 | Rhein-Ruhr | Germany | 11,781,436 |
| 20 | Rio de Janeiro | Brazil | 11,719,708 |
Finding accurate statistics about city populations is difficult with lots of websites quoting figures from a whole variety of different sources, some based on census data others based on projections. However I found the following excellent site the most comprehensive and so took the data from there.
Source data © by Stefan Helders www.world-gazetteer.com