All cities with a population > 1000 or seats of adm div (ca 80.000)Sources and ContributionsSources : GeoNames is aggregating over hundred different data sources. Ambassadors : GeoNames Ambassadors help in many countries. Wiki : A wiki allows to view the data and quickly fix error and add missing places. Donations and Sponsoring : Costs for running GeoNames are covered by donations and sponsoring.Enrichment:add country name

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.

The graph shows the proportion of population in cities worldwide from 1985 to 2050. 53.9 percent of the world's population lived in cities in the year of 2015. This percentage is forecasted to grow to 62.5 percent in the year 2050.

A range of indicators for a selection of cities from the New York City Global City database.

Dataset includes the following:

Geography

City Area (km2)

Metro Area (km2)

People

City Population (millions)

Metro Population (millions)

Foreign Born

Annual Population Growth

Economy

GDP Per Capita (thousands $, PPP rates, per resident)

Primary Industry

Secondary Industry

Share of Global 500 Companies (%)

Unemployment Rate

Poverty Rate

Transportation

Public Transportation

Mass Transit Commuters

Major Airports

Major Ports

Education

Students Enrolled in Higher Education

Percent of Population with Higher Education (%)

Higher Education Institutions

Tourism

Total Tourists Annually (millions)

Foreign Tourists Annually (millions)

Domestic Tourists Annually (millions)

Annual Tourism Revenue ($US billions)

Hotel Rooms (thousands)

Health

Infant Mortality (Deaths per 1,000 Births)

Life Expectancy in Years (Male)

Life Expectancy in Years (Female)

Physicians per 100,000 People

Number of Hospitals

Anti-Smoking Legislation

Culture

Number of Museums

Number of Cultural and Arts Organizations

Environment

Green Spaces (km2)

Air Quality

Laws or Regulations to Improve Energy Efficiency

Retrofitted City Vehicle Fleet

Bike Share Program

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.

Mexico MX: Population in Largest City data was reported at 21,500,251.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 21,419,976.000 Person for 2016. Mexico MX: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 15,225,498.500 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 21,500,251.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 5,479,184.000 Person in 1960. Mexico MX: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Mexico – Table MX.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.; ;

This world cities layer presents the locations of many cities of the world, both major cities and many provincial capitals.Population estimates are provided for those cities listed in open source data from the United Nations and US Census.

Sweden SE: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 17.703 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 17.683 % for 2016. Sweden SE: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 15.683 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 17.703 % in 2017 and a record low of 14.346 % in 1981. Sweden SE: 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 Sweden – Table SE.World Bank: 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;

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;

Syria SY: Population in Largest City data was reported at 2,286,820.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 2,254,557.000 Person for 2016. Syria SY: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 1,646,222.500 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 3,078,498.000 Person in 2010 and a record low of 580,464.000 Person in 1960. Syria SY: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Syrian Arab Republic – Table SY.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.; ;

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.

Hong Kong HK: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 99.637 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 99.540 % for 2016. Hong Kong HK: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 99.382 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 100.000 % in 2010 and a record low of 94.548 % in 1974. Hong Kong HK: 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 Hong Kong – Table HK.World Bank: 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;

The Historical Urban Population, 3700 BC - AD 2000, originally developed by the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, is the first spatially explicit global data set containing location and size of urban populations over the last 6,000 years. The data set was created by digitizing, transcribing, and geocoding historical, archaeological, and census-based urban population data. Each data point consists of a city name, latitude, longitude, year, population, and a reliability ranking to assess the geographic uncertainty of each data point. Despite spatial and temporal gaps, no other geocoded data set at this resolution exists. It can therefore be used to investigate long-term historical urbanization trends and patterns, evaluate the current era of urbanization, and build a richer record of urban population through history.

This statistic shows the projected population of the largest urban agglomerations worldwide in 2035. In that year, the population of the New York-Newark agglomeration in the United States is projected to be 20.8 million people.

The Global Population Density Grid Time Series Estimates provide a back-cast time series of population density grids based on the year 2000 population grid from SEDAC's Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1) data set. The grids were created by using rates of population change between decades from the coarser resolution History Database of the Global Environment (HYDE) database to back-cast the GRUMPv1 population density grids. Mismatches between the spatial extent of the HYDE calculated rates and GRUMPv1 population data were resolved via infilling rate cells based on a focal mean of values. Finally, the grids were adjusted so that the population totals for each country equaled the UN World Population Prospects (2008 Revision) estimates for that country for the respective year (1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000). These data do not represent census observations for the years prior to 2000, and therefore can at best be thought of as estimations of the populations in given locations. The population grids are consistent internally within the time series, but are not recommended for use in creating longer time series with any other population grids, including GRUMPv1, Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4), or non-SEDAC developed population grids. These population grids served as an input to SEDAC's Global Estimated Net Migration Grids by Decade: 1970-2000 data set.

Japan’s largest city, greater Tokyo, had a staggering 37.27 million inhabitants in 2022, making it the most populous city across the Asia-Pacific region. India had the second largest city after Japan with a population consisting of approximately 32 million inhabitants. Contrastingly, approximately 400 thousand inhabitants populated Papua New Guinea's largest city in 2022.

A megacity region Not only did Japan and India have the largest cities throughout the Asia-Pacific region but they were among the three most populated cities worldwide in 2023. Interestingly, over half on the world’s megacities were situated in the Asia-Pacific region. However, being home to more than half of the world’s population, it does not seem surprising that by 2025 it is expected that more than two thirds of the megacities across the globe will be located in the Asia Pacific region. Other megacities are also expected to emerge within the Asia-Pacific region throughout the next decade. There have even been suggestions that Indonesia’s Jakarta and its conurbation will overtake Greater Tokyo in terms of population size by 2030.

Increasing populations Increased populations in megacities can be down to increased economic activity. As more countries across the Asia-Pacific region have made the transition from agriculture to industry, the population has adjusted accordingly. Thus, more regions have experienced higher shares of urban populations. However, as many cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Seoul have an aging population, this may have an impact on their future population sizes, with these Asian regions estimated to have significant shares of the population being over 65 years old by 2035.

Thailand TH: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 29.142 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 28.917 % for 2016. Thailand TH: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 35.514 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 40.429 % in 1969 and a record low of 28.054 % in 2010. Thailand TH: 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 Thailand – Table TH.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;

In 2023, Prague was the most populous city in Czechia with nearly 1.38 million inhabitants. Brno was the second largest city in population with over 400 thousand inhabitants, followed by Ostrava with a population of 317.5 thousand.

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.

Central African Republic CF: Population in Largest City data was reported at 958,335.000 Person in 2023. This records an increase from the previous number of 933,176.000 Person for 2022. Central African Republic CF: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 482,169.500 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2023, with 64 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 958,335.000 Person in 2023 and a record low of 94,350.000 Person in 1960. Central African Republic CF: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Central African Republic – Table CF.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.;;