Metropolitan areas include a central city and neighboring communities linked to it by continous built-up areas or many commuters. Some metropolitan areas have more than one central city. Based on censuses, estimations, and best possible projections. I update this approximately every six months.
Projected 5/11/02
Name Population Remarks
1 Tokyo 34900000 incl. Yokohama, Kawasaki
2 New York 21600000 incl. Newark, Paterson
3 Soul (Seoul) 21150000 incl. Inchon, Songnam
4 Ciudad de México 20750000 incl. Nezahualcóyotl, Ecatepec, Naucalpan
5 São Paulo 20250000 incl. Guarulhos
6 Mumbai (Bombay) 18150000 incl. Kalyan, Thane, Ulhasnagar
7 Osaka 18000000 incl. Kobe, Kyoto
8 Delhi 17150000 incl. Faridabad, Ghaziabad
9 Los Angeles 16800000 incl. Riverside, Anaheim
10 Jakarta 15850000 incl. Bekasi, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang
11 Al-Qahirah [Cairo, Kairo] 15100000 incl. Al-Jizah, Shubra al-Khaymah
12 Kolkata (Calcutta) 14550000 incl. Haora
13 Buenos Aires 13700000 incl. San Justo, La Plata
14 Manila 12800000 incl. Kalookan, Quezon City
15 Moskva [Moskau] 13200000
16 Karachi 12300000
17 Rio de Janeiro 12250000 incl. Nova Iguaçu, São Gonçalo
18 Shanghai 12200000
19 London 11850000
20 Tehran [Teheran] 11050000 incl. Karaj
21 Istanbul 11000000
22 Dhaka (Dacca) 10350000
23 Paris 9800000
24 Chicago 9400000
25 Lagos 9250000
26 Beijing [Peking] 9200000
27 Lima (Lima Metropolitana) 7900000
28 Washington 7850000 incl. Baltimore
29 Bogotá, Santa Fe de 7700000
30 Krung Thep [Bangkok] 7500000
31 Johannesburg 7450000 incl. Soweto, East Rand, West Rand
32 T'aipei [Taipeh] 7400000
33 San Francisco 7250000 incl. Oakland, San Jose
34 Chongqing 7200000
35 Chennai (Madras) 7100000
36 Xianggang (Hong Kong, Victoria) 6950000 incl. Kowloon
37 Kinshasa 6600000
38 Lahore 6500000
39 Bangalore 6350000
40 Philadelphia 6300000
41 Hyderabad 6150000
42 Ruhr 6050000
43 Al-Khartum [Khartoum] 5950000
44 Boston 5900000
45 Detroit 5850000 incl. Windsor (Canada)
46 Tianjin 5750000
47 Sankt-Peterburg (Leningrad) 5550000
48 Dallas 5500000 incl. Fort Worth
49 Santiago 5450000
50 Madrid 5150000
Brackets indicate alternate names/spellings.
Parentheses indicate former names which may still be in use.
Notable changes since last time: More accurate third world estimates once again caused minor chnages. Most significantly, Mumbai moved up from 8 to 6, Delhi moved up from 14 to 8, Khartoum dropped from 30 to 43, Lagos moved up from 31 to 25, and Johannesburg moved up from 36 to 31. Madrid is new on the list, and Toronto has fallen off of it.
Data from: "Th. Brinkhoff: Principal Agglomerations and Cities of the World, http://www.citypopulation.de, 11.05.2002".
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