Only 2 U.S. Cities Among World’s 30 Most Populous
To most Americans, New York City is a very crowded place — but by the standards of the world’s other large urban areas it’s far from densely populated. The New York urban area, comprising parts of New York state, Connecticut, and New Jersey, has a density of just 4,600 persons per square mile, the lowest density of any of the world’s megacities, according to the ninth annual edition of Demographia World Urban Areas. In fact, among urban areas with a population of at least 500,000, it ranks only at No. 793 thanks to its 4,495-square-mile footprint, the largest among all world megacities. The most densely populated urban area — defined by Demographia as a “continuously built-up land mass of urban development that is within a single labor market” — is Dhaka, Bangladesh, with 115,000 people per square mile. Its 14.4 million people are packed into an area of just 125 square miles. If New York had the same density as Dhaka, its population would be 517 million — far more than the entire U.S. population today. After Dhaka, the two most densely populated urban areas are Hyderabad, Pakistan (101,800 per square mile), and Mumbai, India (82,000), according to Demographia’s calculations. Tokyo remains the world’s most populous urban area with 37 million, a position it has held since it displaced New York nearly 60 years ago. It’s followed by Jakarta, Indonesia (26.7 million); Seoul, South Korea (22.86 million); Delhi, India (22.82); Shanghai, China (21.7 million); Manila, Philippines (21.2 million); Karachi, Pakistan (20.8 million); New York (20.6 million); Sao Paulo, Brazil (20.5 million); and Mexico City, Mexico (20 million). The only other American city among the top 30 is Los Angeles, No. 17 with 15 million. Demographia reveals that despite the tremendous growth in population in the world’s largest cities, particularly those in the developing world, the 28 megacities with a population of at least 10 million account for only 13 percent of the world’s population. And despite China’s industrialization in recent decades and the growth of its urban areas, “only” 346 million people live in Chinese cities with a population of 500,000 or more, meaning that 74 percent of China’s 1.3 billion population live in rural areas or in urban areas with less than 500,000 people.
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