As all of you know, a city is a large human settlement. More than half of the world’s population currently lives in cities.
Urbanization has been one of the most important things to happen to our society, as today, more than 80% of people in higher-income countries find themselves living in urban areas. This number lies between 50-80% in upper-middle-income countries.
Given your prior knowledge of cities, I’d like to introduce you to the megacity. A megacity is defined as an urban area with a population of more than 10 million people, meaning that the world’s top 20 most populous cities are all megacities.
The top five largest cities by population are Tokyo in Japan, Delhi in India, Shanghai in China, São Paulo in Brazil, and Mexico City in Mexico. Slightly behind in populations are cities like Cairo in Egypt, and Mumbai, also in India. By 2035, two new cities are also expected to join the top 20, these being Bangalore in India and Lahore in Pakistan. Urban growth is expected to continue mainly in Asia and Africa, with some cities in Europe even expected to shrink in population due to aging citizens and declining birth rates.
It’s interesting to see how this list will develop in the coming years, so be sure to pay attention to populations over the next few years!