Rama SharmaThe United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities in all jurisdictions are classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined as the cities proper, the extent of their urban area, or their metropolitan regions. The largest city by population using the city proper definition, which is the area under the administrative boundaries of a local government, is Chongqing, China. The largest city by population using the metropolitan area definition, which is a loose term referring to urban area and its primary commuter areas, is Tokyo, Japan. The largest city by population using the urban area definition, which is a loose term referring to a contiguous area with a certain population density, is also Tokyo, Japan.
There are 81 cities with a population over 5,000,000 people according to the United Nations 2018 estimates. The UN figures are a mixture of city proper, metropolitan area, and urban area. Several cities such as Jakarta and Seoul have significantly larger metropolitan/urban population figures which are excluded on the UN data.
| City | Country | UN 2018 population estimates | City proper | Metropolitan area | Urban area (Demographia) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Definition | Population | Area (km2) |
Population | Area (km2) |
Population | Area (km2) |
|||
| Tokyo | Japan | 37,400,068 | Metropolis prefecture | 13,515,271 | 2,191 | 37,274,000 | 13,452 | 37,977,000 | 8,230 |
| Delhi | India | 28,514,000 | National capital territory | 16,753,235 | 1,484 | 29,000,000 | 3,483 | 29,617,000 | 2,232 |
| Shanghai | China | 25,582,000 | Municipality | 24,183,000 | 6,341 | N/A | N/A | 22,120,000 | 4,068 |
| São Paulo | Brazil | 21,650,000 | Municipality | 12,252,023 | 1,521 | 21,734,682 | 7,947 | 22,046,000 | 3,116 |
| Mexico City | Mexico | 21,581,000 | City-state | 8,918,653 | 1,485 | 20,892,724 | 7,854 | 20,996,000 | 2,386 |
| Cairo | Egypt | 20,076,000 | Urban governorate | 9,500,000 | 3,085 | N/A | N/A | 19,372,000 | 2,010 |
| Mumbai | India | 19,980,000 | Municipality | 12,478,447 | 603 | 24,400,000 | 4,355 | 23,355,000 | 944 |
| Beijing | China | 19,618,000 | Municipality | 21,707,000 | 16,411 | N/A | N/A | 19,433,000 | 4,172 |
| Dhaka | Bangladesh | 19,578,000 | Capital city | 14,399,000 | 338 | 14,543,124 | 15,443,000 | 456 | |
| Osaka | Japan | 19,281,000 | Designated city | 2,725,006 | 225 | 19,303,000 | 13,228 | 14,977,000 | 3,019 |
Source: Wikipedia
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