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As of 2023, Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan was the largest world urban agglomeration, with 37,8 million people living there. Jakarta ranked second with 34 million, with Delhi in third with 32 million inhabitants.

Mogadishu in Somalia led the ranking of cities with the highest population density in 2023, with 33,244 residents per square kilometer. When it comes to countries, Monaco is the most populated state worldwide.

In 2024, approximately 22.81 million people lived in the São Paulo metropolitan area, making it the biggest in Latin America and the Caribbean and the fifth 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 22.51 million inhabitants.

Brazil's cities

Brazil is home to two large metropolises, only counting the population within the city limits, São Paulo had approximately 12.4 million inhabitants, and Rio de Janeiro around 6.8 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 85 percent of inhabitants living in cities.

Mexico City

Mexico City's metropolitan area ranks fifth 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 2021, the city registered a crime incidence of 45,336 reported cases for every 100,000 inhabitants and around 32 percent of the population lived under the poverty line.

This statistic shows the top 25 cities in the United States with the highest resident population as of July 1, 2022. There were about 8.34 million people living in New York City as of July 2022.

This statistic shows a forecast of the top ten most populous megacities in 2030. By 2030, Tokyo will be the most populous city in the world, with a projected 37 million inhabitants.

United States US: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 7.020 % in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 7.065 % for 2016. United States US: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 8.675 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 11.200 % in 1960 and a record low of 7.020 % in 2017. United States US: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the percentage of a country's urban population living in that country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; Weighted average;

Population in largest city in Pakistan was reported at 17236230 in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Pakistan - Population in largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on March of 2025.

In 2022, approximately 11.45 million people lived in São Paulo, making it the largest municipality in Brazil and one of the most populous cities in the world. The homonymous state of São Paulo was also the most populous federal entity in the country.

Brazil's cities

Brazil is home to two large metropolises: São Paulo with close to 11.45 million inhabitants, and Rio de Janeiro with 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 85 percent of inhabitants living in cities.

While smaller than some of the other cities, Brasília was chosen to be the capital because of its relatively central location. The city is also well-known for its modernist architecture and utopian city plan which is quite controversial - criticized by many and praised by others.

Sports venues capitals

A number of Brazil’s medium-sized and large cities were chosen as venues for the 2014 World Cup, and the 2015 Summer Olympics also took place in Rio de Janeiro. Both of these events required large sums of money to support infrastructure and enhance mobility within a number of different cities across the country. Billions of dollars were spent on the 2014 World Cup, which went primarily to stadium construction and renovation, but also to a number of different mobility projects. Other short-term spending on infrastructure for the World Cup and the Rio Olympic Games was estimated at around 50 billion U.S. dollars. While these events have poured a lot of money into urban infrastructure, a number of social and economic problems within the country remain unsolved.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Mexico City, Mexico metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.

The statistic depicts the ten largest cities in Mexico in 2020. In 2020, Mexico City had around 8.84 million residents which made it the largest city in Mexico.

Population of Mexico

Mexico is a federal republic located in North America, sharing borders with the United States to the north, and to the southeast with Guatemala and Belize. With a total area of over 1.9 million square kilometers, it is the fourteenth largest nation in the world and the fifth largest in the Americas.

In 2014, Mexico’s total population amounted to approximately 120 million people. A little under two thirds of Mexico’s total population is of Mestizo ethnicity. The total population has steadily grown over the past decade, despite being the source to the largest migration flow between countries in the world; in 2010, around 11.6 million immigrants from Mexico lived in the United States. The migration flow between the United States and Mexico has however, decreased over the past ten years: Between 1995 and 2000, over 2.9 million migrants emigrated from Mexico to the United States. This was more than the double of migrants who emigrated from Mexico to the United States between 2005 and 2010. Each year, Mexico's population grows by about 1.24 percent compared to the previous year. Mexico City, the country’s capital and largest city, is home to approximately 8.6 million people.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Los Angeles metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.

New Zealand NZ: Population in Largest City data was reported at 1,377,309.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 1,360,422.000 Person for 2016. New Zealand NZ: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 851,045.500 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,377,309.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 440,164.000 Person in 1960. New Zealand NZ: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s New Zealand – Table NZ.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the urban population living in the country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; ;

By 1800, London had grown to be the largest city in Western Europe with just under one million inhabitants. Paris was now the second largest city, with over half a million people, and Naples was the third largest city with 450 thousand people. The only other cities with over two hundred thousand inhabitants at this time were Vienna, Amsterdam and Dublin. Another noticeable development is the inclusion of many more northern cities from a wider variety of countries. The dominance of cities from France and Mediterranean countries was no longer the case, and the dispersal of European populations in 1800 was much closer to how it is today, more than two centuries later.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Tokyo, Japan metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.

This dataset describes counterfactual public transport networks that were simulated for 36 world cities, and the aggregate data discussed in the paper in which these data are published. UNIT OF MEASURE: Meters of network length. RESOLUTION: 1:1000000. COMPLETENESS: 100%. POLICY CONTEXT: Regional and urban policies. METHODOLOGY: Network expansion modelling. DATA SOURCES: FUA boundaries and population sizes according to 1km GHSL population grids (release 2019). LEVEL OF AGGREGATION: cities defined on population density clusters. UNCERTAINTY AND LIMITATIONS: Data based on simulation exercise with the explicit aim of creating counterfactual networks.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Shanghai, China metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.

Abstract

Polluted air is a major health hazard in developing countries. Improvements in pollution monitoring and statistical techniques during the last several decades have steadily enhanced the ability to measure the health effects of air pollution. Current methods can detect significant increases in the incidence of cardiopulmonary and respiratory diseases, coughing, bronchitis, and lung cancer, as well as premature deaths from these diseases resulting from elevated concentrations of ambient Particulate Matter (Holgate 1999).

Scarce public resources have limited the monitoring of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) concentrations in developing countries, despite their large potential health effects. As a result, policymakers in many developing countries remain uncertain about the exposure of their residents to PM air pollution. The Global Model of Ambient Particulates (GMAPS) is an attempt to bridge this information gap through an econometrically estimated model for predicting PM levels in world cities (Pandey et al. forthcoming).

The estimation model is based on the latest available monitored PM pollution data from the World Health Organization, supplemented by data from other reliable sources. The current model can be used to estimate PM levels in urban residential areas and non-residential pollution hotspots. The results of the model are used to project annual average ambient PM concentrations for residential and non-residential areas in 3,226 world cities with populations larger than 100,000, as well as national capitals.

The study finds wide, systematic variations in ambient PM concentrations, both across world cities and over time. PM concentrations have risen at a slower rate than total emissions. Overall emission levels have been rising, especially for poorer countries, at nearly 6 percent per year. PM concentrations have not increased by as much, due to improvements in technology and structural shifts in the world economy. Additionally, within-country variations in PM levels can diverge greatly (by a factor of 5 in some cases), because of the direct and indirect effects of geo-climatic factors.

The primary determinants of PM concentrations are the scale and composition of economic activity, population, the energy mix, the strength of local pollution regulation, and geographic and atmospheric conditions that affect pollutant dispersion in the atmosphere.

Geographic coverage

The database covers the following countries: Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola
Antigua and Barbuda Argentina
Armenia Australia
Austria Azerbaijan
Bahamas, The
Bahrain Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus Belgium Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros Congo, Dem. Rep.
Congo, Rep. Costa Rica
Cote d'Ivoire
Croatia Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador Egypt, Arab Rep.
El Salvador Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia
Faeroe Islands
Fiji
Finland France
Gabon
Gambia, The Georgia Germany Ghana
Greece
Grenada Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hong Kong, China
Hungary Iceland India
Indonesia
Iran, Islamic Rep.
Iraq
Ireland Israel
Italy
Jamaica Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Korea, Dem. Rep.
Korea, Rep. Kuwait
Kyrgyz Republic Lao PDR Latvia
Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macao, China
Macedonia, FYR
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Mauritania
Mexico
Moldova Mongolia
Morocco Mozambique
Myanmar Namibia Nepal
Netherlands Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico Qatar
Romania Russian Federation
Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovak Republic Slovenia
Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uganda
Ukraine United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay Uzbekistan
Vanuatu Venezuela, RB
Vietnam Virgin Islands (U.S.)
Yemen, Rep. Yugoslavia, FR (Serbia/Montenegro)
Zambia
Zimbabwe

Kind of data

Observation data/ratings [obs]

Mode of data collection

Other [oth]

Urban population refers to people living in urban areas as defined by national statistical offices. It is calculated using World Bank population estimates and urban ratios from the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects. Aggregation of urban and rural population may not add up to total population because of different country coverages.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the New York City metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.