This dataset provides a comprehensive overview of the population statistics for 800 largest cities in the world, detailing the population estimates for the years 2023 and 2024. Additionally, it includes the calculated growth rate for each city over this period. This dataset can be instrumental for urban studies, demographic analysis, and economic research. Columns Description • City: The name of the city. • Country: The country where the city is located. • Population (2024): Estimated population of the city for the year 2024. • Population (2023): Estimated population of the city for the year 2023. • Growth Rate: The rate of population growth from 2023 to 2024. This is calculated as the difference between the 2024 and 2023 populations, divided by the 2023 population.

The below dataset shows the top 800 biggest cities in the world and their populations in the year 2024. It also tells us which country and continent each city is in, and their rank based on population size. Here are the top ten cities:

• Tokyo, Japan - in Asia, with 37,115,035 people.
• Delhi, India - in Asia, with 33,807,403 people.
• Shanghai, China - in Asia, with 29,867,918 people.
• Dhaka, Bangladesh - in Asia, with 23,935,652 people.
• Sao Paulo, Brazil - in South America, with 22,806,704 people.
• Cairo, Egypt - in Africa, with 22,623,874 people.
• Mexico City, Mexico - in North America, with 22,505,315 people.
• Beijing, China - in Asia, with 22,189,082 people.
• Mumbai, India - in Asia, with 21,673,149 people.
• Osaka, Japan - in Asia, with 18,967,459 people.

Based on a collection of estimates, over the past 9,000 years, there have been at least 48 cities with a claim to the title of "the world's most populous city". While these can be found on four separate continents, the majority are concentrated in three major regions; 12 of these cities were in present-day Iraq or Syria (then-Mesopotamia), nine were in China, and seven in Egypt. Additionally, many of these cities were found across the Mediterranean, not only during Antiquity (Alexandria, Carthage, and Rome), but also during the Middle Ages (Constantinople, Cordova, and Fez), highlighting the economic significance of this region throughout history.

Many of the older entries in this list are now just archeological sites, although several have been continuously inhabited for millennia, such as Luoyang and Xi'an in China, which both have populations of several million in 2022. It may also be possible that the first entry, Jericho, is the world's oldest, continuously inhabited settlement, although this is a topic of debate.

List of the world's major cities (above 15,000 inhabitants)

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, 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.

World Cities provides a basemap layer for the cities of the world. The cities include national capitals, provincial capitals, major population centers, and landmark cities. Population estimates are provided for those cities listed in open source data from the United Nations Statistics Division, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, and U.S. Census Bureau.

Dataset

This dataset was created by Aakash Shinde

Contents

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.

Actual value and historical data chart for World Population In The Largest City Percent Of Urban Population

Population in largest city in United States was reported at 19034018 in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United States - Population in largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

Content

In this dataset you can find hundreds of thousands of the largest cities in the world and info about their latitude, longitude, timezone, location, etc.

Acknowledgements

This data comes from https://data.world/fiftin/cities/workspace/file?filename=RU.txt.

Japan JP: Population in Largest City data was reported at 37,397,437.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 37,326,706.000 Person for 2016. Japan JP: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 31,840,745.000 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 37,397,437.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 16,678,821.000 Person in 1960. Japan JP: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Japan – Table JP.World Bank.WDI: 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.; ;

It is estimated that the cities of Cordova (modern-day Córdoba) and Palermo were the largest cities in Europe in 1050, and had between fifteen and twenty times the population of most other entries in this graph, Despite this the cities of Cordova (the capital city of the Umayyad caliphate, who controlled much of the Iberian peninsula from the seventh to eleventh centuries), and Palermo (another Arab-controlled capital in Southern Europe) were still the only cities in Western Europe with a population over one hundred thousand people, closely followed by Seville. It is also noteworthy to point out that the five largest cities on this list were importing trading cities, in modern day Spain or Italy, although the largest cities become more northern and western European in later lists (1200, 1330, 1500, 1650 and 1800). In 1050, todays largest Western European cities, London and Paris, had just twenty-five and twenty thousand inhabitants respectively.

The period of European history (and much of world history) between 500 and 1500 is today known as the 'Dark Ages'. Although the term 'Dark Ages' was originally applied to the lack of literature and arts, it has since been applied to the lack or scarcity of recorded information from this time. Because of these limitations, much information about this time is still being debated today.

This dataset lists cities which consists of above 15,000 inhabitants. Each city is associated with its country and sub-country to reduce the number of ambiguities. Subcountry can be the name of a state (eg in the United Kingdom or the United States of America) or the major administrative section (eg "region" in "France").

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;

Large cities in different countries, ranked by population.

Dataset

This dataset was created by Joseph Bamidele Olawale

Released under Apache 2.0

Contents

Source

The data file is from https://simplemaps.com/data/world-cities.

Between 1500 and 1800, London grew to be the largest city in Western Europe, with its population growing almost 22 times larger in this period. London would eventually overtake Constantinople as Europe's largest in the 1700s, before becoming the largest city in the world (ahead of Beijing) in the early-1800s.

The most populous cities in this period were the capitals of European empires, with Paris, Amsterdam, and Vienna growing to become the largest cities, alongside the likes of Lisbon and Madrid in Iberia, and Naples or Venice in Italy. Many of northwestern Europe's largest cities in 1500 would eventually be overtaken by others not shown here, such as the port cities of Hamburg, Marseilles or Rotterdam, or more industrial cities such as Berlin, Birmingham, and Munich.