User:Polaron/List of urban agglomerations by population

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This page lists the 100 largest metropolitan areas of the world, listed by population. This is a controversial issue rather difficult to quantify, as unlike national subdivisions, there are no defined borders for such an area. Many of the figures for individual cities are highly controversial, and in some cases numbers which differ by millions are given by different sources. In some countries there are official definitions, but they are not consistent on a global basis, nor even necessarily within countries. (For example the United States metropolitan areas are based mainly on county boundaries, but counties are generally smaller and more evenly sized in the eastern half of the United States than in the western half). In addition, the underlying structure of different metros varies: comparing a highly centralised city with an agglomeration of smaller settlements may not be very meaningful. Commuting patterns and other aspects of urban behaviour which underlie the metro area concept differ greatly around the world. Thus all population figures for specific metros should be treated as interpretations rather than hard facts, and rankings and comparisons of metros should be treated with great caution.

The data for this list was compiled from the 2005 urban population figures from the United Nations 2003 World Urbanization Prospects Report [1]. These figures include suburban areas immediately surrounding a major city and sometimes multiple major cities which may be close enough together to function essentially as one area. Figures are based on rough estimates for the year 2005 and rounded to the nearest 1,000. Despite the standing of the organisation behind the figures the appropriateness and consistency of the boundaries used is controversial and the aforementioned warnings apply.

Rank	Metropolitan area name	Country	Definition	Area (km²)	Population estimate	Population density (/km²)
1	Tokyo (Greater Tokyo Area)	Japan	Official metropolitan area (Keihinyo MMA)	13,500	35,237,000	2,610
2	Mexico City (Greater Mexico City)	Mexico	Official metropolitan area (ZMCM)	5,480	19,013,000	3,470
3	New York City, New York–Newark, New Jersey (New York metropolitan area)	United States	Urban area (FIPS 63217)	8,680	18,498,000	2,131
4	Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra	India	Administrative area (MMRDA)	4,360	18,336,000	4,206
5	São Paulo (Greater São Paulo Area)	Brazil	Official metropolitan area	8,050	18,333,000	2,277
6	Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi	India	Administrative area (NCT)	1,480	15,334,000	10,360
7	Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal	India	Administrative area (KMD)	1,780	14,299,000	8,033
8	Buenos Aires (Aglomerado Gran Buenos Aires)	Argentina	Metropolitan area	3,680	13,349,000	3,627
9	Jakarta (Jabotabek Metropolitan Area)	Indonesia	Urbanized area	1,360	13,194,000	9,701
10	Shanghai	China	Municipality (urban population)	6,500	12,665,000	1,948
11	Dhaka	Bangladesh	Official metropolitan area (Dhaka Megacity)	1,600	12,560,000	7,850
12	Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana, California	United States	Urbanized area (FIPS 51445)	4,320	12,146,000	2,812
13	Karachi	Pakistan	City district	3,530	11,819,000	3,348
14	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	Official metropolitan area	5,000	11,469,000	2,294
15	Osaka–Kobe	Japan	Urbanized area (administrative boundaries) (excludes Kyoto)	2,070	11,286,000	5,452
16	Cairo–Giza–Shubra El-Khema	Egypt	Metropolitan area		11,146,000
17	Lagos	Nigeria	Urbanized area	640	11,135,000	17,398
18	Beijing	China	Municipality (urban population)	16,810	10,849,000	645
19	Manila (Metropolitan Manila)	Philippines	Administrative area (Metro Manila)	640	10,677,000	16,683
20	Moscow	Russia	City proper (Federal city)	1,080	10,672,000	9,881
21	Paris, Île-de-France	France	Urban area (commune boundaries)	2,720	9,854,000^[3]	3,683
22	Istanbul	Turkey	Metropolitan municipality	5,340	9,760,000	1,828
23	Seoul	Republic of Korea	City proper (Seoul City)	610	9,592,000^[4]	15,725
24	Tianjin	China	Municipality (urban population)	11,940	9,346,000	783
25	Chicago, Illinois	United States	Urbanized area (FIPS 16264)	5,500	8,711,000	1,584
26	Lima (Lima and Callao Metropolitan Area)	Peru	Official metropolitan area	2,810	8,180,000
27	London (Greater London)	United Kingdom	Urban area	1,620	7,615,000^[1]
28	Bogotá–Soacha	Colombia	Metropolitan area	1,980	7,594,000
29	Tehran	Iran	City proper	660	7,352,000
30	Hong Kong Special Administrative Region	China	Administrative area	1,100	7,182,000
31	Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu	India	Administrative area (CMDA)	1,180	6,915,000	24,231
32	Bangkok	Thailand	Official metropolitan area (Bangkok Metropolis)	1,570	6,604,000
33	Rhein-Ruhr North–Duisburg, Essen, Krefeld, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Oberhausen, Bottrop, Gelsenkirchen, Bochum, Dortmund, Hagen, Hamm and Herne	Germany	Urban area (NUTS-3 boundaries)	4,500	6,566,000
34	Bangalore, Karnataka	India	Administrative area (BDA)	1,280	6,532,000
35	Lahore, Punjab	Pakistan	City district	2,250	6,373,000
36	Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh	India	Administrative area (HUDA)	1,860	6,145,000
37	Wuhan, Hubei	China	Prefecture-level city (urban population)	8,490	6,003,000
38	Baghdad	Iraq	Governorate (province)	730	5,910,000
39	Kinshasa	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Province-level city (urban population)	9,960	5,717,000
40	Santiago (Gran Santiago)	Chile	Metropolitan area	2,350	5,623,000
41	Riyadh	Saudi Arabia	City proper	1,550	5,514,000
42	Miami, Florida	United States	Urbanized area (FIPS 56602)	2,890	5,380,000
43	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	United States	Urbanized area (FIPS 69076)	4,660	5,325,000
44	Saint Petersburg	Russia	City proper (Federal city)	1,150	5,315,000
45	Belo Horizonte	Brazil	Official metropolitan area	9,190	5,304,000
46	Ahmedabad, Gujarat	India	Administrative area (AUDA)	1,300	5,171,000
47	Madrid	Spain	Official metropolitan area	1,700	5,145,000
48	Toronto (Greater Toronto Area)	Canada	Official metropolitan area (CMA)	5,870	5,060,000
49	Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)	Vietnam	Municipality (urban population)	2,090	5,030,000
50	Chongqing	China	Prefecture-level city [pre-1997 borders] (urban population)	14,880	4,975,000
51	Shenyang, Liaoning	China	Prefecture-level city (urban population)	12,960	4,916,000
52	Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington, Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex)	United States	Urbanized area (FIPS 22042)	3,640	4,612,000
53	Khartoum–Khartoum North–Omdurman	Sudan	Urbanized area (administrative boundaries)		4,495,000
54	Pune, Maharashtra	India	Urbanized area	700	4,485,000
55	Barcelona	Spain	Official metropolitan area	3,240	4,424,000
56	Sydney, New South Wales	Australia	Metropolitan area (Statistical Division)	12,140	4,388,000
57	Singapore City	Singapore	City proper	690	4,372,000
58	Boston, Massachusetts (Greater Boston)	United States	Urbanized area (FIPS 09271)	4,500	4,313,000
59	Atlanta, Georgia (Atlanta Metropolitan Area)	United States	Urbanized area (FIPS 03817)	5,080	4,284,000
60	Houston, Texas (Greater Houston)	United States	Urbanized area (FIPS 40429)	3,350	4,283,000
61	Washington, DC	United States	Urbanized area (FIPS 92242) (excludes Baltimore)	3,000	4,190,000
62	Chittagong	Bangladesh	Official metropolitan area (census definition)	990	4,171,000
63	Hanoi	Vietnam	Metropolitan area	2,150	4,147,000
64	Yangon	Myanmar	Urbanized area	350	4,082,000
65	Bandung	Indonesia	Urbanized area	220	4,020,000
66	Milan	Italy	Urbanized area (administrative boundaries)	1,700	4,007,000
67	Detroit, Michigan (Metro Detroit)	United States	Urbanized area (FIPS 23824)	3,270	3,980,000
68	Guadalajara, Jalisco	Mexico	Official metropolitan area	2,730	3,905,000
69	Guangzhou, Guangdong	China	Prefecture-level city (urban population)	7,440	3,881,000
70	Jeddah	Saudi Arabia	City proper	560	3,807,000
71	Porto Alegre	Brazil	Metropolitan area	9,890	3,795,000
72	Alexandria, Al Iskandariyah Governorate	Egypt	Governorate	2,970	3,760,000
73	Casablanca (Region du Grand Casablanca)	Morocco	Administrative area	1,620	3,743,000
74	Rhein-Main–Darmstadt, Frankfurt am Main, Offenbach am Main and Wiesbaden (Greater Frankfurt)	Germany	Urban area (NUTS-3 boundaries)	3,500	3,721,000
75	Surat, Gujarat	India	Urbanized area	200	3,671,000
76	Melbourne, Victoria	Australia	Metropolitan area (Statistical Division)	7,690	3,663,000
77	Ankara	Turkey	Metropolitan municipality	2,500	3,593,000
78	Busan (Pusan)	Republic of Korea	City proper (Busan City)	760	3,527,000
79	Recife, Brazil	Brazil	Metropolitan area	2,770	3,527,000
80	Monterrey, Nuevo León	Mexico	Official metropolitan area	4,010	3,517,000
81	Abidjan	Côte d'Ivoire	City proper	550	3,516,000
82	Montreal, Quebec (Greater Montreal Area)	Canada	Metropolitan area (CMA)	4,050	3,511,000
83	Chengdu, Sichuan	China	Prefecture-level city (urban population)	12,350	3,478,000
84	Phoenix–Mesa, Arizona (Valley of the Sun)	United States	Urbanized area (FIPS 69184)	2,070	3,393,000
85	San Francisco–Oakland, California	United States	Urbanized area (excludes San Jose)	1,360	3,342,000^[2]
86	Brasilia	Brazil	Metropolitan area (RIDE)	14,400	3,341,000
87	Salvador	Brazil	Metropolitan area	2,340	3,331,000
88	Berlin	Germany	Berlin city state	890	3,328,000
89	Rhein-Ruhr Middle–Düsseldorf, Mönchengladbach, Remscheid, Solingen and Wuppertal	Germany	Urban area (NUTS-3 boundaries)	1,500	3,325,000
90	Johannesburg	South Africa	Metropolitan municipality (excludes Ekurhuleni and West Rand)	1,640	3,288,000
91	Kabul	Afghanistan	City proper		3,288,000
92	Pyongyang	North Korea	City proper	2,110	3,284,000
93	Caracas	Venezuela	Official metropolitan area	1,930	3,276,000
94	Fortaleza	Brazil	Metropolitan area	4,950	3,261,000
95	Algiers	Algeria	Wilaya (province)	270	3,260,000
96	Xi'an	China	Prefecture-level city (urban population)	9,980	3,256,000
97	Athens	Greece	Urbanized area (administrative boundaries)		3,238,000
98	Medellín	Colombia	Metropolitan area (Valle de Abura)	1,150	3,236,000
99	Nagoya	Japan	Urbanized area (administrative boundaries)	670	3,189,000
100	Cape Town	South Africa	Metropolitan municipality	2,500	3,103,000

1 See also
- 1.1 Lists of metropolitan areas by region
2 Notes
3 References
4 External links
- 4.1 Other lists of metropolitan areas
- 4.2 Further reading

[edit] See also

[edit] Lists of metropolitan areas by region

[edit] Notes

^{^} Does not take into account known census undercount causing projections to be smaller than actual count. Latest census figure for the Greater London Urban Area is 8,278,251 (2001). The metropolitan area of London is more commonly listed (see Other Lists section) as having a population between 12 and 14 million. The Greater London Authority has also identified an extended metropolitan area based on commuting patterns with a population of about 18 million.
^{^} San Francisco is more often considered to be part of a combined metropolitan area with the city of San Jose. The total population of the combined area is 7,154,350 (2003 estimate).
^{^} The statistical metropolitan area (aire urbaine) of Paris has an official population of 11,174,743 (as of 1999).
^{^} The Seoul metropolitan area has a population of about 22 million according to other lists of metropolitan areas (see Other lists section). This includes Incheon and most of Gyeonggi-do.