In 2025, approximately 23 million people lived in the São Paulo metropolitan area, making it the biggest in Latin America and the Caribbean and the sixth most populated in the world. The homonymous state of São Paulo was also the most populous federal entity in the country. The second place for the region was Mexico City with 22.75 million inhabitants. Brazil's cities Brazil is home to two large metropolises, only counting the population within the city limits, São Paulo had approximately 11.45 million inhabitants, and Rio de Janeiro around 6.21 million inhabitants. It also contains a number of smaller, but well known cities such as Brasília, Salvador, Belo Horizonte and many others, which report between 2 and 3 million inhabitants each. As a result, the country's population is primarily urban, with nearly 88 percent of inhabitants living in cities. Mexico City Mexico City's metropolitan area ranks sevenths in the ranking of most populated cities in the world. Founded over the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan in 1521 after the Spanish conquest as the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the city still stands as one of the most important in Latin America. Nevertheless, the preeminent economic, political, and cultural position of Mexico City has not prevented the metropolis from suffering the problems affecting the rest of the country, namely, inequality and violence. Only in 2023, the city registered a crime incidence of 52,723 reported cases for every 100,000 inhabitants and around 24 percent of the population lived under the poverty line.

As of 2025, Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan was the largest world urban agglomeration, with 37 million people living there. Delhi ranked second with more than 34 million, with Shanghai in third with more than 30 million inhabitants.

In 2025, Moscow was the largest city in Europe with an estimated urban agglomeration of 12.74 million people. The French capital, Paris, was the second largest city in 2025 at 11.35 million, followed by the capitals of the United Kingdom and Spain, with London at 9.84 million and Madrid at 6.81 million people. Istanbul, which would otherwise be the largest city in Europe in 2025, is excluded as it is only partially in Europe, with a sizeable part of its population living in Asia. Europe’s population is almost 750 million Since 1950, the population of Europe has increased by approximately 200 million people, increasing from 550 million to 750 million in these seventy years. Before the turn of the millennium, Europe was the second-most populated continent, before it was overtaken by Africa, which saw its population increase from 228 million in 1950 to 817 million by 2000. Asia has consistently had the largest population of the world’s continents and was estimated to have a population of 4.6 billion. Europe’s largest countries Including its territory in Asia, Russia is by far the largest country in the world, with a territory of around 17 million square kilometers, almost double that of the next largest country, Canada. Within Europe, Russia also has the continent's largest population at 145 million, followed by Germany at 83 million and the United Kingdom at almost 68 million. By contrast, Europe is also home to various micro-states such as San Marino, which has a population of just 30 thousand.

A dataset listing Wisconsin cities by population for 2024.

A dataset listing Washington cities by population for 2024.

A dataset listing New York cities by population for 2024.

Annual population estimates as of July 1st, by census metropolitan area and census agglomeration, single year of age, five-year age group and gender, based on the Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) 2021.

A dataset listing Georgia cities by population for 2024.

CityPropStats provides aggregated property statistics for 795 cities and towns (i.e., Metropolitan and Micropolitan statistical areas) in the conterminous United States. These statistics include sum, mean, median, Gini index and entropy of residential floor space, cadastral parcel size, floor-area ratio, and property value, approximately for the reference year 2020, aggregated by building construction year in decadal steps (cumulative and incremental) from 1910 to 2020.Cumulative statistics: CBSA_Property_Statistics_1910-2020_cumulative.csvDecadal time slices statistics: CBSA_Property_Statistics_1910-2020_decadal_slices.csvData source: Zillow Transaction and Assessment Dataset (ZTRAX), provided to University of Colorado Boulder via a data share agreement (2016-2023).CityPropStats is a supplementary dataset to:Ortman S.G., et al. (accepted): "Changes in Agglomeration and Productivity are Poor Predictors of Inequality Across the Archaeological Record". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025).Column description:cbsa_idCBSA GEOIDcbsa_nameFull namecbsa_typeCBSA type (metro vs micropolitan statistical area)year_fromEarliest year for selection interval of properties based on their construction yearyear_toLatest year for selection interval of properties based on their construction yearcbsa_popCBSA population or population change (US Census)tot_res_propsTotal residential propertiestot_res_area_sqkmTotal indoor area of residential properties in sqkmavg_res_area_sqmAverage indoor area of residential properties in sqmmedian_res_area_sqmMedian indoor area of residential properties in sqmq25_res_area_sqm25th percentile of indoor area of residential properties in sqmq75_res_area_sqm75th percentile of indoor area of residential properties in sqmgini_res_areaGini index of residential property indoor areatot_prop_value_usdTotal residential property value in USDmedian_prop_value_usdMedian residential property value in USDq25_prop_value_usd25th percentile of residential property values in USDq75_prop_value_usd75th percentile of residential property values in USDgini_prop_valueGini index of residential property valuestot_lot_area_sqkmTotal lot (cadastral parcel) area in sqkmavg_lot_area_sqmMean lot area in sqmmedian_lot_area_sqmMedian lot area in sqmq25_lot_area_sqm25th percentile of lot area in sqmq75_lot_area_sqm75th percentile of lot area in sqmgini_lot_areaGini index of lot areaavg_farMean floor-area-ratio (FAR), with FAR being the ratio of building indoor area and lot area, based on residential propertiesmedian_farMedian floor-area-ratio (FAR), with FAR being the ratio of building indoor area and lot area, based on residential propertiesq25_far25th percentile of floor-area-ratio (FAR), with FAR being the ratio of building indoor area and lot area, based on residential propertiesq75_far75th percentile of floor-area-ratio (FAR), with FAR being the ratio of building indoor area and lot area, based on residential propertiesentropy_res_areaShannon entropy of the indoor area of residential properties, based on propertiesentropy_prop_valueShannon entropy of the property value of residential properties, based on propertiesentropy_lot_areaShannon entropy of the lot size of residential properties, based on propertiesarea_completenessRatio of properties with a valid indoor area attribute [0,1]value_completenessRatio of properties with a valid property value attribute [0,1]lotsize_completenessRatio of properties with a valid indoor area, property value, and lot size attribute [0,1]area_value_completenessRatio of properties with a valid lot size attribute [0,1]area_value_lotsize_completenessRatio of properties with both a valid indoor area and property value attribute [0,1]

A dataset listing Louisiana cities by population for 2024.

A dataset listing Iowa cities by population for 2024.

A dataset listing New Mexico cities by population for 2024.

A dataset listing Indiana cities by population for 2024.

A dataset listing Massachusetts cities by population for 2024.

A dataset listing Maine cities by population for 2024.

London was by far the largest urban agglomeration in the United Kingdom in 2023, with an estimated population of 9.65 million people, more than three times as large as Manchester, the UK’s second-biggest urban agglomeration. The agglomerations of Birmingham and Leeds / Bradford had the third and fourth-largest populations respectively, while the biggest city in Scotland, Glasgow, was the fifth largest. Largest cities in Europe Two cities in Europe had larger urban areas than London, with the Russian capital Moscow having a population of almost 12.7 million. The city of Paris, located just over 200 miles away from London, was the second-largest city in Europe, with a population of more than 11.2 million people. Paris was followed by London in terms of population-size, and then by the Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona, at 6.75 million and 5.68 million people respectively. Russia's second-biggest city; St. Petersburg had a population of 5.56 million, followed by Rome at 4.3 million, and Berlin at 3.5 million. London’s population growth Throughout the 1980s, the population of London fluctuated from a high of 6.81 million people in 1981 to a low of 6.73 million inhabitants in 1988. During the 1990s, the population of London increased once again, growing from 6.8 million at the start of the decade to 7.15 million by 1999. London's population has continued to grow since the turn of the century, reaching a peak of 8.96 million people in 2019, and is forecast to reach 9.8 million by 2043.

A dataset listing Utah cities by population for 2024.

A dataset listing Montana cities by population for 2024.

Nigeria is the African country with the largest population, counting over 230 million people. As of 2024, the largest city in Nigeria was Lagos, which is also the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of population size. The city counts more than nine million inhabitants, whereas Kano, the second most populous city, registers around 3.6 million inhabitants. Lagos is the main financial, cultural, and educational center in the country. Where Africa’s urban population is booming The metropolitan area of Lagos is also among the largest urban agglomerations in the world. Besides Lagos, another most populated citiy in Africa is Cairo, in Egypt. However, Africa’s urban population is booming in other relatively smaller cities. For instance, the population of Bujumbura, in Burundi, could grow by 123 percent between 2020 and 2035, making it the fastest growing city in Africa and likely in the world. Similarly, Zinder, in Niger, could reach over one million inhabitants by 2035, the second fastest growing city. Demographic urban shift More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. In the next decades, this will increase, especially in Africa and Asia. In 2020, over 80 percent of the population in Northern America was living in urban areas, the highest share in the world. In Africa, the degree of urbanization was about 40 percent, the lowest among all continents. Meeting the needs of a fast-growing population can be a challenge, especially in low-income countries. Therefore, there will be a growing necessity to implement policies to sustainably improve people’s lives in rural and urban areas.

In 2025, the Ile-de-France region, sometimes called the Paris region, was the most populous in France. It is located in the northern part of France, divided into eight departments and crossed by the Seine River. The region contains Paris, its large suburbs, and several rural areas. The total population in metropolitan France was estimated at around 65 million inhabitants. In the DOM (Overseas Department), France had more than two million citizens spread over the islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, Mayotte, and the South American territory of French Guiana. Ile-de-France: most populous region in France According to the source, more than ** million French citizens lived in the Ile-de-France region. Ile-de-France was followed by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Occitanie region which is in the Southern part of the country. Ile-de-France is not only the most populated region in France, it is also the French region with the highest population density. In 2020, there were ******* residents per square kilometer in Ile-de-France compared to ***** for Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the second most populated region in France. More than two million people were living in the city of Paris in 2025. Thus, the metropolitan area outside the city of Paris, called the suburbs or banlieue in French, had more than ten million inhabitants. Ile-de-France concentrates the majority of the country’s economic and political activities. An urban population In 2024, the total population of France amounted to over 68 million. The population in the country has increased since the mid-2000s. As well as the other European countries, France is experiencing urbanization. In 2023, more than ** percent of the French population lived in cities. This phenomenon shapes France’s geography.