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List of cities by population

 

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List of cities by population



 
 
, the financial capital of India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, is the largest city proper in the world]] area of Shanghai
Shanghai

Shanghai is the List of cities in the People's Republic of China by population in China and one of the List of metropolitan areas by population in the world, with over 20 million people....
, China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
]] This is a list of the most populous cities
City

A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status.Large industrialized cities generally have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, house, and transportation and more....
 of the World
World

World is a common name for the planet Earth seen from a human worldview, as a place inhabited by human beings. It is often used to signify the sum of human experience and history, or the 'human condition' in general....
 defined according to the concept of city proper
City limits

----The term city limits refers to the defined boundary of a city....
. The list ranks the World's urban municipal units (or well-defined statistical groupings of such units) according to population
Population

File:Population density.pngIn biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings....
.






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, the financial capital of India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, is the largest city proper in the world]] area of Shanghai
Shanghai

Shanghai is the List of cities in the People's Republic of China by population in China and one of the List of metropolitan areas by population in the world, with over 20 million people....
, China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
]]
Karachi Downtown
This is a list of the most populous cities
City

A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status.Large industrialized cities generally have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, house, and transportation and more....
 of the World
World

World is a common name for the planet Earth seen from a human worldview, as a place inhabited by human beings. It is often used to signify the sum of human experience and history, or the 'human condition' in general....
 defined according to the concept of city proper
City limits

----The term city limits refers to the defined boundary of a city....
. The list ranks the World's urban municipal units (or well-defined statistical groupings of such units) according to population
Population

File:Population density.pngIn biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings....
. Note that the populations listed are for the city proper and not for the urban area
Urban area

An urban area is an area with an increased Population density of human-created structures in comparison to the areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be city, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlet ....
 nor the metropolitan area
Metropolitan area

A metropolitan area is a large population center consisting of a large metropolis and its adjacent zone of influence, or of more than one closely adjoining neighboring central city and their zone of influence....
. It should further be noted that the meaning and role of the political units taken for the purpose of this list to be the "city proper" are not and cannot be wholly consistent due to the differing systems of local government around the World. Statistical definitions for each city, approximate surface area, and population density
Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans....
 are also indicated.

Population

RankCityPopulationDefinitionArea (km²)Population density (/km²)Country
1Mumbai
Mumbai

Mumbai— formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city proper has approximately 14 million people and, along with the neighbouring suburbs of Navi Mumbai and Thane, Mumbai forms the World's largest urban agglomerations according to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects report with around 19...
Municipal Corporation
2 Shanghai
Shanghai

Shanghai is the List of cities in the People's Republic of China by population in China and one of the List of metropolitan areas by population in the world, with over 20 million people....
Core districts + inner suburbs
3 Karachi
Karachi

is the largest city, seaport and the International financial centre of Pakistan. It is List of metropolitan areas by population in terms of metropolitan population, and is Pakistan's premier centre of banking, industry, and trade....
City District
4 Istanbul
Istanbul

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, List of metropolitan areas in Europe by population, and List of cities proper by population in the world with a population of 12.6 million....
Municipality
5 Delhi
Delhi

Delhi , sometimes referred to as Dilli , is the List of most populous cities in India metropolis in India and, with over 11 million residents, the List of metropolitan areas by population....
Municipal Corporation
6 São Paulo
São Paulo

S?o Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, and along with Tokyo, Seoul and Mexico City is among the four largest metropolitan regions of the world....
Municipality
7 Moscow
Moscow

Moscow is the capital and the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia of the Russian Federation. It is also the largest European cities and metropolitan areas, with the Moscow metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world....
City proper (includes Zelenograd
Zelenograd

Zelenograd is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, which, along with the territories and settlements under its jurisdiction, forms one of the administrative divisions of Moscow of Moscow - Zelenograd Administrative Okrug ....
)
8 Seoul
Seoul

Seoul is the Capital and largest city of South Korea. With a population of over 10 million, It is one of the world's List of cities proper by population.The Seoul National Capital Area - which includes the major port city of Incheon and satellite towns in Gyeonggi-do, has 24.5 million inhabitants and is the world's second largest List of me...
Special City
9 Beijing
Beijing

is a metropolis in northern China and the Capital of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the four municipality of China, which are equivalent to province in China's Political divisions of China....
Core districts + inner suburbs
10 Mexico City
Mexico City

Mexico City is the capital city of Mexico. It is the most important economic, industrial, and cultural center in the country; the most populous city with over 8,836,045 inhabitants in 2008....
Federal District
11 Tokyo
Tokyo

, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshu. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the Tokyo City in the eastern part of the prefecture, and total over 8 million people....
23 special wards area
12 Jakarta
Jakarta

Jakarta is the Capital and largest city of Indonesia. It also has a List of urban areas by population than any other city in Southeast Asia. It was formerly known as Sunda Kelapa , Jayakarta , Batavia, Dutch East Indies , and Djakarta ....
Special capital district
13 New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
City proper
14 Lagos
Lagos

Lagos is the most populous conurbation in Nigeria with 7,937,932 inhabitants at the 2006 census. It is currently the second most Largest cities in africa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa , immediately following Bamako....
statistical area
15 Kinshasa
Kinshasa

Kinshasa is the Capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is also known as Congo Kinshasa. The city is located on the Congo River....
City-Province
16 Tehran
Tehran

Tehran is the capital and largest city of Iran, and the administrative center of Tehran Province. Tehran is a sprawling city at the foot of the Alborz mountain range with an immense network of highways unparalleled in Western Asia....
City proper
17 London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
Greater London
Greater London

Greater London is the top-level administrative subdivision covering London, England. The administrative area was officially created in 1965 and covers the City of London , the City of Westminster and the other 31 London boroughs....
18 Lima
Lima

Lima is the Capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chill?n River, R?mac River and Lur?n River rivers, on a coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean....
Province
19 Bogotá
Bogotá

Bogot? ? officially named Bogot?, D.C. , formerly called Santa Fe de Bogot? ? is the capital city of Colombia, as well as the most populous city in the country, with 6,776,009 inhabitants ....
Capital district
20 Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Hong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located in Southern China in East Asia, bordering the province of Guangdong to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east, west and south....
Special Administrative Region
21 Bangkok
Bangkok

The city of Bangkok is the Capital , largest urban area and primary city of Thailand. Known in Thai language as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or Krung Thep for short, it was a small trading post at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River during the Ayutthaya Kingdom and came to the forefront of Thailand when it was given the status as the...
Administrative area
22 Cairo
Cairo

Cairo , which means "the triumphant", is the Cairo and largest city of Egypt.It is the most populous metropolitan area in Egypt and is also one of the most populous in the world....
Governorate  
23 Dhaka
Dhaka

Dhaka ? formerly Dacca and Jahangir Nagar, is the Capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia....
City Corporation
24 Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam. Under the name Prey Nokor it was the main port of Cambodia, before being annexed by the Vietnamese in the 17th century....
Province-level municipality
25 Lahore
Lahore

is the capital of the Pakistani Subdivisions of Pakistan of Punjab and is the List of most populated metropolitan areas in Pakistan city in Pakistan after Karachi....
City District
26 Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , is the second largest city of Brazil and South America, behind S?o Paulo, and the third largest metropolitan area in South America, behind S?o Paulo and Buenos Aires....
Municipality
27 Tianjin
Tianjin

is the third largest city of the People's Republic of China in terms of urban population. Administratively it is one of the four municipality that have Political divisions of China status, reporting directly to the central government....
Core districts + inner suburbs
28 Chongqing
Chongqing

Chongqing is the largest and most populous of the People's Republic of China's four provinces of China-level municipality of China, and the only one in the less densely populated western region of China....
Core districts
29 Baghdad
Baghdad

Baghdad is the Capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is also coterminous. With a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq, and the second largest city in the Arab World....
City proper  
30 Bangalore
Bangalore

Bangalore , officially Bengaluru , is the capital of the Indian States and territories of India of Karnataka. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's List of most populous cities in India and List of most populous metropolitan areas in India....
Municipal Corporation
31 Kolkata
Kolkata

, Indian renaming controversy , is the Capital of the Indian States and territories of India of West Bengal. It is located in East India on the east bank of the River Hooghly....
Municipal Corporation
32 Yangon
Yangon

Yangon is the largest city and a former capital of Burma. It is the capital of Yangon Division. Although the State Peace and Development Council has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial center....
City proper  
33 Santiago
Santiago, Chile

Santiago , is the Capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of 520 m Above mean sea level....
Province
34 Singapore
Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country microstate located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It lies 137 kilometres north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands....
Country
35 Guangzhou
Guangzhou

'Guangzhou' is the Capital and a sub-provincial city of Guangdong Province of China in the northern and southern China part of the People's Republic of China....
(2002-12-31) Core districts  
36 Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a types of inhabited localities in Russia and a federal subjects of Russia of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea....
City proper
37 Wuhan
Wuhan

is the capital of Hubei province, and is the most populous city in central People's Republic of China. It lies at the east of Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and Han River ....
(2002-12-31) Core districts
38 Chennai
Chennai

Chennai , formerly Indian renaming controversy , is the fourth largest metropolitan area of India and the capital city of the Indian states and territories of India of Tamil Nadu....
Municipal Corporation
39 Riyadh
Riyadh

Riyadh is the Capital of Saudi Arabia and its largest city. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Nejd and Al-Yamama....
City proper
40 Alexandria
Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
Governorate
41 Surat
Surat

Surat is a seaport city in the Indian Indian state of Gujarat and administrative headquarters of the Surat District. As of 2007, Surat and its metropolitan area had a population about the same size as Singapore, approximately 4 million....
(mid-2008 est.) Municipal Corporation (new limits)
42 Hyderabad Municipal corporation
43 Shenyang
Shenyang

Shenyang , or Mukden , is a sub-provincial city and capital city of Liaoning Provinces of China in Northeast China.Along with its nearby cities, Shenyang is an important industrial center in China, and the transportation and commercial centre of China's northeastern region....
(2002-12-31) Core districts  
44 Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad is the largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat and one of the List of most populous metropolitan areas in India in India, with a population of approximately 52 lakhs ....
Municipal corporation
45 Ankara
Ankara

Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and the country's List of largest cities and second largest cities by country List of cities in Turkey after Istanbul....
Municipality
46 Johannesburg
Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Joburg, is the largest city in South Africa. Johannesburg is the province Capital of Gauteng the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa....
City of Johannesburg metropolitan municipality  
47 Los Angeles
Los Ángeles

Los ?ngeles is the Capital of the Biob?o Province, in the municipality of the same name, in Regions of Chile VIII , in the center-south of Chile....
City proper
48 Abidjan
Abidjan

Abidjan is the economic and former official capital of C?te d'Ivoire . It is the largest city in the nation, and the second largest French speaking city in the world....
Department/District 
49 Yokohama
Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kanto region of the main island of Honshu. It is a major commercial hub of the Greater Tokyo Area....
City proper
50 Busan
Busan

Busan Metropolitan City, also known as Pusan is the largest seaport city in South Korea. Busan has a population of 3.65 million and is South Korea's second largest metropolis, after Seoul....
Metropolitan City
51 Cape Town
Cape Town

Cape Town is the second most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the metropolitan municipality of the City of Cape Town. It is the provincial Capital of the Western Cape, as well as the legislature capital of South Africa, where the Parliament of South Africa and many government offices are located....
City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality  
52 Durban
Durban

Durban is the third most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality . It is the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal and is famous as the busiest port in Africa....
eThekwini metropolitan municipality
53 Berlin
Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
City and state of Germany
54 Pune
Pune

Pune ,Pune is the administrative capital of Pune district and the 7th Metro city of India.Pune is known to have existed as a town since 937 AD....
Municipal corporation  
55 Pyongyang
Pyongyang

Pyongyang is the Capital and largest city of North Korea, located on the Taedong River, at . According to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, it has a population of 3,255,388....
Directly Governed City  
56 Madrid
Madrid

Madrid is the Capital and largest city of Spain. It is the Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits in the European Union after Greater London and Berlin, and its Madrid metropolitan area is the Largest urban areas of the European Union in the European Union after Paris aire urbaine, Greater London Urban Area, a...
Municipality
57 Kanpur
Kanpur

Kanpur is the seventh most populous city in India and the most populous within the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and in terms of area, Kanpur is the fifth largest city in India .It is also known as the Manchester of Asia....
Municipal corporation  
58 Jaipur
Jaipur

Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital of Rajasthan States and territories of India, India. Historically rendered as Jeypore, Jaipur is the former capital of the princely state of Jaipur State....
Municipal corporation  
59 Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the Capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southern shore of the R?o de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent....
Argentine Capital District
60Nairobi
Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital city and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi Province. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai language phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters"....
Province
61Jeddah
Jeddah

Jeddah is a Saudi Arabian city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh....
City proper  


See also


  • List of metropolitan areas by population
    List of metropolitan areas by population

    The question of which are the world's largest cities is a complex one, to which there is no single correct answer, simply because there are many different ways of defining a "city"....
  • List of urban areas by population
    List of urban areas by population

    This is a list of contiguous urban areas of the world ordered according to population as of 2008. The figures here have been compiled by Demographia....
  • World's largest cities
    World's largest cities

    The question of determining the world's largest cities does not allow a single, simple answer. It depends on which definitions of "city" and "size" are used, and how those definitions are applied....
     (explaining alternative measures)


External links