What is the largest city in the world? Biggest places by population and area.
The United Nations estimated the world reached a total population of eight billion in Nov. 2022. With the current population growth, the U.N. also estimates the global population will reach 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050.
The United States Census estimates there are nearly 335 million people living in the United States alone, a number that's steadily increased over the past few years.
Country by country and city by city the population differs drastically, but what is the largest city in the world?
What is the largest city in the world?
According to the World Populations Review, here are the top 10 largest cities by population in 2024, rounded:
Tokyo, Japan - 37.1 million people
Delhi, India - 34.8 million people
Shanghai, China - 29.8 million people
Dhaka, Bangladesh - 23.9 million people
S?o Paulo, Brazil - 22.8 million people
Cairo, Egypt - 22.6 people
Mexico City, Mexico - 22.5 million people
Beijing, China - 22.1 million people
Mumbai, India - 21.6 million people
Osaka, Japan - 18.9 million people
What is the largest city in the world by area?
Unlike measuring population, determining the largest city in the world by area is a less straightforward exercise. Each country has its own definition of what constitutes a city, making a standard measurement for the largest city by area harder to determine. For example, the World Population Review says the city of Sermersooq in Greenland is, by their standard of measurement for a city, over 205,400 square miles for a population of 23,123 people.
To combat the inconsistency across countries, Demographia created a standardization to measure cities called Urban Area that factors population density in determining the area of cities. In using Urban Area as a form of measurement, it groups cities and areas together, so the top 10 largest cities by area are not the individual cities themselves but rather groups of cities within proximity as determined by Demographia.
According to the World Populations Review, based off reports from Demographia, the top 10 largest cities in terms of square miles:
New York-Newark
Boston-Providence
Tokyo-Yokohama
Atlanta
Chicago
Los Angeles
Moscow
Washington-Baltimore
Philadelphia
Dallas-Fort Worth
What state has the lowest population?: Top 10 least-populated states
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is the largest city in the world? Most populated cities in 2024.