The list of the most populated cities of course depends on your definition of what a city is and where it ends, and it also depends on where you look for the information. Depending on where you look, you will come up with different lists, because there is no agreed definition of a city.
The only certainty is that there are too many cities, with too many people in them.
According to Nations Online, the most populated cities are:
1.Seoul, North Korea, with 10,231,000
2.Sao Paolo, Brazil, with just over 10,000,000
3.Mumbai, India, with around 9,925,000
4.Jakarta, Indonesia, with around 9,373,000
5.Karachi, Pakistan, with around 9,339,000
6.Moscow, Russia, with around 8,297,000
7.Istanbul, Turkey, with around 8,260,000
8.Mexico city, Mexico, with around 8,235,000
9.Shanghai, China, with around 8,214,000
10.Tokyo, Japan, with around 8,130,000
According to the book ‘The top 10 of everything’, which apparently views a city in a much wider way than other authors, the top 10 cities are (with no population figures given) are:
1.Hong Kong, China
2.Lagos, Nigeria
3.Dhaka, Bangladesh
4.Jakarta, Indonesia
5.Mumbai, India
6.Ahmadabad, India
7.Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
8.Shenyang, China
9.Bangalore, India
10.Cairo, Egypt
According to the World Gazetteer, the ten most populated countries are:
1.Shanghai, China, with 15,584,000 people.
2.Mumbai, India, with around 13,662,000 people.
3.Karchi, Pakistan, with 12,461,000 people.
4.Buenos Aires, Argentina, with around 12,127,000 people.
5.Delhi, India, with around 11,954,000 people.
6.Manila, Philippines, with around 10,993,000 people.
7.Moscow, Russia, with around 10,555,000 people.
8.stanbul, Turkey, with around 10,460,000 people.
9.So Paulo, Brazil, with around 10,287,000 people.
10.Dhka, Bangladesh, with around 10,084,000 people.
So, take your pick. Is the most populated city Seoul, Shanghai, or Hong Kong? Or is it Tokyo, Mexico City or New York?
It all depends on your definition, and the only thing that could be said for certain is that all of these places have far too many people living in them. I’ll take my village of just under 1000 people any day!
