The interactive map of world city populations – https://luminocity3d.org/WorldCity/ – has been updated with the newest release of the UN World Urbanization Prospects (WUP), the leading dataset for understanding global urban dynamics. The new UN WUP 2025 release supersedes the 2018 version. It’s a major revision with updated demographic data a new harmonised methodology for calculating urban agglomeration populations based on urban land analysis (using the Global Human Settlement Layer data) compared to previous use of national administrative boundaries. The dataset also covers an updated time frame of 1975-2050. The dataset shows some dramatic changes in the ranking of the world’s largest urban agglomerations and predictions for urban growth in the next 25 years.
The online interactive World City map allows you to explore the overall trends in urban populations and the detailed dynamics of particular cities of interest. I have also created a non-interactive high-res publication version of the map below-
Jakarta and Dhaka Measured as the World’s Largest Urban Agglomerations
The UN WUP 2025 uses an updated harmonised global methodology for defining urban agglomerations as contiguous areas of high density urban land (above 1,500 persons per km2) with a minimum population of at least fifty thousand. This new methodology results in several changes to the ranking of the world’s largest city-regions. Tokyo, with a population of 33.4 million is 2025, is often measured as the world’s most populous city, but with this methodology Jakarta, current population a gigantic 41.9 million, replaced Tokyo in 2010. This change in Jakarta’s population appears to be due to updated demographic data, and a misalignment between Jakarta’s administrative boundary and its metropolitan region that caused previous underestimations (I got similar results for Jakarta with my own analysis of the Global Human Settlement Layer data). The projection is for Dhaka and Jakarta to become the first urban agglomerations to exceed 50 million people in 2050.
| Urban Agglomeration | Population 2025 (millions) | Global Rank 2025 | Population 2050 (millions) | Global Rank 2050 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jakarta | 41.9 | 1 | 51.2 | 2 |
| Dhaka | 36.6 | 2 | 52.1 | 1 |
| Tokyo | 33.4 | 3 | 30.7 | 7 |
| New Delhi | 30.2 | 4 | 33.9 | 4 |
| Shanghai | 29.6 | 5 | 34.9 | 3 |
| Guangzhou | 27.6 | 6 | 29.2 | 8 |
| Cairo | 25.6 | 7 | 32.4 | 6 |
| Manila | 24.7 | 8 | 27.1 | 9 |
| Kolkata | 22.5 | 9 | 23.8 | 10 |
| Seoul | 22.5 | 10 | 21.2 | 12 |
| Karachi | 21.4 | 11 | 32.6 | 5 |
| Mumbai | 20.2 | 12 | 23.1 | 11 |
Data from UN World Urbanization Prospects 2025
Stabilisation of Urban Populations in China and India
Global urban growth in recent decades has been dominated by China and India. The next 25 years however project a more stable urban picture in the world’s most populous countries, with China starting to follow Japan and South Korea with an ageing and more static population. For example, Shanghai gained a massive 15.5 million people between 2000 and 2025, but this growth is predicted to slow to 5.5 million between 2025-2050. Some cities in West China such as Chongqing, Wuhan and Chengdu are predicted to lose population between 2025-2050, though there are larger population falls predicted in Japan and South Korea.
Population change in India’s largest urban agglomerations follows a broadly similar stabilisation pattern. New Delhi gained 12.3 million residents between 2000-2025 to reach 30.2 million people, but the population growth prediction for the next 25 years is lower at 3.7 million. A similar levelling off can also be seen in the Indian megacities of Mumbai and Kolkata. Urban growth is higher however in India’s South Asian neighbours. Dhaka in Bangladesh continues with very high rates of growth. Dhaka is currently the world’s second largest urban agglomeration at 36.6 million in 2025, and may become the world’s largest urban agglomeration in 2050. Pakistan shows a similar picture, with Karachi predicted to gain 11.5 million people between 2025-2050 to become the world’s fifth largest urban agglomeration.
Highest Growth Rates in Africa, Though Also Lower than Previous Predictions
Africa countries are generally much earlier in their urban transition and so have proportionally higher predicted rates of growth. Luanda is set to gain 8.9 million people between 2025-2050. Dar es Salaam and Addis Ababa are predicted to both become megacities of over 10 million in the next 25 years. Even In African cities however, this release of World Urbanization Prospects shows lower predicted growth for coming decades than previous predictions. Cities such as Lagos and Kinshasa have reduced populations with this methodology.
About the World City Population Visualisation
The interactive map has been built using Mapbox JS. The technique of overlaying proportional circles to show urban population change over time was first developed in a static map at LSE Cities Urban Age by Guido Robazza.
CityGeographics 