The days when the vast majority of people on Earth lived freely in nature: in small villages and villages have long passed. Since the end of the XIX century. Our planet has been taken over by urbanization. The rapid development of civilization and the equally rapid increase in the population of the Earth led to the widespread growth of huge urban settlements. The modern largest cities of the world, probably, would seem to a time traveler who arrived from the Middle Ages, huge, unreal, fantastic worlds. However, for residents of small provincial towns, scattered today in abundance across Mother Russia, huge metropolitan areas also seem surprising and unusual. And there are many such giant world centers on our planet.
The world's largest cities by population
The population of the largest cities in the world is simply amazing! Now we will see which settlements are the largest in terms of the number of people living in them. Let's take the top ten leaders.
- 10th place, oddly enough, New York. It is strange that only the 10th … The population of this American metropolis today exceeds 21,500,000 people.
- 9th place goes to Manila with 21,800,000 Filipinos.
- 8th place rightfully belongs to the largest Pakistani port city of Karachi - 22,100,100 inhabitants.
- 7th place is occupied by Indian Delhi - 23,500,000 inhabitants.
- 6th place was taken by the capital of Mexico, Mexico City - 23,500,000 inhabitants.
- 5th place belongs to the Korean city of Seoul - 25,600,000 inhabitants.
- 4th place goes to Shanghai with 25,800,000 inhabitants.
And finally, we have reached the top three!
3 most crowded cities in the world
Here are the largest cities in the world by population (in ascending order): 3rd - Jakarta (25,800,000 inhabitants), 2nd - Canton (26,300,000 inhabitants) and 1st - Tokyo (34,600,000 inhabitants). Each of these three megacities of the Earth is worth telling in more detail.
Jakarta
This is the capital of Indonesia, located on the island of Java. Jakarta is the most populous city in all of Southeast Asia. In this place, different cultures of the entire Indonesian archipelago are closely intertwined. An interesting fact is that during the day the number of inhabitants of the capital increases by several million, due to the arrival of residents from the suburbs to work. The largest ethnic groups inhabiting Jakarta are Javanese, Sunds, Chinese, Madurese, Arabs and Indians.
Despite the fact that Jakarta is one of the largest and most densely populated cities on Earth, in order to see all its sights, tourists will only need one, maximum - a couple of days. First of all, guests of the capital are advised to visit the so-called old city, which has preserved ancient architecture and originality. For travelers in Southeast Asia, Jakarta is more like a transit point on the way to the beauties of Indonesia.
Canton
The list, which includes the largest cities in the world, of course, could not do without one of the megacities of China. After all, the Celestial Empire is the most populous and densely populated country in the world. The city of Canton or, as it is called in another way, Guangzhou, is one of the most famous historical Chinese cultural settlements. At the same time, it is a major industrial and commercial center of the DPRK, as well as a commercial port of the country.
Canton (or Guangzhou) is called the city of flowers: thanks to the subtropical humid climate, this place is literally immersed in luxurious greenery all year round. The history of Guangzhou has more than two thousand years. Once upon a time, the famous Silk Road originated here.
Tokyo
Well, our story about the largest cities in the world is coming to an end and ends with a short description of the absolute champion in terms of population - the Japanese capital Tokyo. So far, this is the only metropolis on the planet in which the number of inhabitants exceeded the figure of 30 million. True, Tokyo can not be considered a cityin the usual sense of the word. It is a prefecture made up of 26 individual cities, 7 towns and 8 villages. Surprisingly, the area of Tokyo is not at all large - only 2156.8 square meters. km, which makes this place on Earth the most densely populated.
The world's largest city surprisingly combines modernity, stuffed with electronic innovations, multi-tiered car overpasses and fantastic skyscrapers, and antiquity with ancient Buddhist temples, beautiful rotundas and traditional gardens and squares. At any time of the year it is full of tourists. So, to the number of permanent local residents, you can also add a noisy crowd of discordant travelers who daily arrive in Tokyo from all over the globe.
According to scientists, the population of the largest cities in the world will continue to grow in the future, as well as the population of our entire planet. Forbes magazine recently released research that suggests that Tokyo will retain its leading position as the world's largest city by population by 2025.
