Largest World Cities Timeline (then and now)

Introduction
The word City (Polis in Greek) is related to Polemic, war, battle, and probably the prefix Poly "great".
It gave rise to the word Politeia — Citizenship and Freedom. To the Romans the word took on the meaning of "Political", even "Politeness" from Polish and refinement.

Click here for an associated page, a timeline of Large Populations (then and now)

Click here for World Alphabets basis of scripts below

  1. Hebrew (basis of Aramaic, Brahmi, Punic-Phoenician alphabet)
  2. Greek (basis of Russia's Cyrillic alphabet in 900AD)
  3. Latin (basis of Scandinavian, German, Romance, English alphabet)
  4. Arabic (basis of Turko-Persian alphabet)

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Click here for the background article to this page

Ancient Large Cities

The first three cities Jericho, Uruk and Mari were originally pre-flood, and their dimensions were just one square kilometre (or less) surrounded by walls.

After the flood, Egypt (called Misr in Aramaic, Mizraim in Hebrew) city populations, Memphis (in Northern Egypt) and Thebes (in Southern Egypt) were about 60,000 each. They bore no relation to the Hebrew population which circa 1500BC under Moses increased to 600,000 plus women and children.
Regarding language, the Egyptian Hieratic script found in the pyramids (about 1000 characters) was a cursive writing system that evolved via Demotic, a shorthand system ca 700BC, into Coptic, a Greek-based alphabet of 31 phonetic characters about 100AD.

YearNameScriptPopulationToday
7000 BCJericho, in modern Israel 2,00015,000
3500 BCUruk (Erech rebuilt by Nimrod), in modern Iraq.Sumerian4,000Ruins
2400 BCMari, in modern Syria 50,000Ruins
2100 BCUr, in modern Iraq. Used Akkadian, a Semitic cuneiform script.Akkadian 600 characters100,000Ruins
1300 BCYinxu, in modern China 120,000Ruins
700 BCBabylon, 100 kms south of Baghdad in modern IraqOld Aramaic
22 characters
100,000Ruins
300 BCCarthage, in modern Tunisia, North AfricaPunic
22 characters
500,00020,000
Time of ChristRome, ItalyLatin
23 characters
1,000,0004 million
600 ADConstantinople (Istanbul), in modern TurkeyGreek
24 characters
600,00015 million
900 ADBaghdad, Iraq. Sacked by Mongols in 1258. With ongoing wars never reclaimed its earlier grandeur. Population growth in 20th Century 1900‑145t 1950‑580t 1960‑1m 1990‑4m 2010‑5½mArabic
28 characters
900,0007 million
1100Kaifeng, China*Chinese
214 radicals
1,000,0002 million
1200Angkor, the "City of Temples" in modern Cambodia. Sacked and looted by Ayutthaya invaders in 1431Khmer
35 characters
1,000,000Ruins
1500Beijing, China*Chinese
214 radicals
1,000,00022 million
1700Ayutthaya, 64 kms north of Bangkok in modern ThailandThai
44 characters
1,000,00055,000
1810London, EnglandEnglish
26 characters
1,000,00014 million
1925New York, USAEnglish
26 characters
8,000,00020 million
1968Tokyo, Japan
 
Population refers to Greater Tokyo Area including Yokohama (40 kms south)
**Japanese
46 letters
214 radicals
20,000,00037 million

*Note that in Modern Chinese, the 214 radicals (pictures) are used to create many thousands of characters, say 8 thousand.
**Note that in Japanese, the 214 radicals (pictures) are similarly used to create thousands of characters, say 2 - 3 thousand. These are called Kanji (Chinese characters).
Japanese also has two additional alphabets (Hiragana and Katakana) that contain 46 letters each.

Metropolitan population of other large cities today

Below is a list of the largest 150 cities from http://www.citymayors.com /statistics /largest-cities-population-125.html sorted by City Population.

The research was carried out during 2017 and early 2018. For the population data, the researchers consulted numerous national and international sources and in cases of large statistical inconsistencies elected to publish cautious averages. The figures for city populations comprise the number of residents within the unified administrative areas of cities, while the data for metro populations include residents of urban areas that are socially, culturally and economically dependent on the core city.

Please note, there is no internationally agreed definition of metro areas. Readers and scholars are invited to inform of any discrepancies and/or provide missing facts and figures.

Click a column heading to resort alphabetically or numerically.

 

World rank   ↑ ↓
City
(caps denote capital cities)
CountryCity populationMetro population
1
Shanghai China
24,153,000
34,000,000
2
BEIJING China
18,590,000
24,900,000
3
Karachi Pakistan
18,000,000
27,506,000
4
Istanbul Turkey
14,657,000
14,804,000
5
DHAKA Bangladesh
14,543,000
18,898,000
6
TOKYO Japan
13,617,000
37,800,000
7
MOSCOW Russia
13,197,596
17,900,000
8
MANILA Philippines
12,877,000
22,710,000
9
Tianjin China
12,784,000
15,469,000
10
Mumbai (Bombay) India
12,400,000
27,750,000
11
Sao Paulo Brazil
12,038,000
21,243,000
12
Shenzhen China
11,908,000
11,980,000
13
Guangzhou China
11,548,000
14,044,000
14
DELHI India
11,035,000
26,454,000
15
Wuhan China
10,608,000
10,608,000
16
Lahore Pakistan
10,355,000
10,355,000
17
SEOUL South Korea
10,290,000
25,600,000
18
Chengdu China
10,152,000
14,427,000
19
KINSHASA Congo D.R.
10,125,000
21,265,000
20
LIMA Peru
9,752,000
10,852,000
21
JAKARTA Indonesia
9,608,000
30,214,000
22
CAIRO Egypt
9,500,000
20,440,000
23
MEXICO CITY Mexico
8,919,000
20,400,000
24
TEHRAN Iran
8,847,000
15,233,000
25
BAGHDAD Iraq
8,765,000
8,765,000
26
Xian China
8,705,000
13,560,000
27
LONDON UK
8,674,000
13,880,000
28
New York City USA
8,550,000
23,724,000
29
Nanjing China
8,460,000
8,460,000
30
Bangalore India
8,444,000
8,729,000
31
Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam
8,426,000
10,050,000
32
BANGKOK Thailand
8,281,000
14,566,000
33
Chongquin China
8,165,500
18,380,000
34
BOGOTA Colombia
8,081,000
9,800,000
35
Lagos Nigeria
8,048,000
16,060,000
36
RIYADH Saudi Arabia
7,506,000
7,506,000
37
Hong Kong China
7,234,800
7,234,800
38
Chennai India
7,088,000
8,653,000
39
Hangzhou China
7,082,000
9,188,000
40
Hyderabad India
6,809,000
7,749,000
41
Rio de Janeiro Brazil
6,454,000
12,281,000
42
Zhengzhou China
6,406,000
9,468,000
43
Shenyang China
6,255,000
8,106,000
44
Qingdao China
6,188,000
9,046,000
45
SANTIAGO Chile
6,158,000
6,582,000
46
Dalian China
5,900,000
6,700,000
47
SINGAPORE Singapore
5,607,000
5,607,000
48
Ahmadabad India
5,577,000
6,357,000
49
Suzhou China
5,468,000
10,578,000
50
St Petersburg Russia
5,323,000
7,500,000
51
Harbin China
5,282,000
6,704,000
52
ANKARA Turkey
5,271,000
6,280,000
53
KHARTOUM Sudan
5,185,000
5,185,000
54
Yangon Myanmar (Burma)
5,160,000
7,360,000
55
Casablanca Morocco
5,118,000
6,861,000
56
Sydney Australia
5,000,000
5,000,000
57
Jinan China
4,694,000
7,068,000
58
Melbourne Australia
5,000,000
5,000,000
59
Changsha China
4,597,000
7,432,000
60
Kolkata India
4,497,000
14,618,000
61
Fuzhou China
4,468,000
7,200,000
62
Surat India
4,467,000
4,591,000
63
Abidjan Ivory Coast
4,396,000
4,707,000
64
DAR ES SALAAM Tanzania
4,364,000
4,364,000
65
Shiziahuang China
4,303,000
10,701,000
66
Jeddah Saudi Arabia
4,276,000
4,276,000
67
Faisalabad Pakistan
4,075,000
4,075,000
68
Nanning China
4,037,000
6,914,000
69
Alexandria Egypt
4,028,000
4,984,000
70
AMMAN Jordan
4,008,000
4,008,000
71
Los Angeles USA
3,976,000
13,131,000
72
Kunming China
3,891,000
6,626,000
73
Changchun China
3,815,000
7,674,000
74
Yokohama Japan
3,733,000
3,733,000
75
KABUL Afghanistan
3,678,000
3,678,000
76
BERLIN Germany
3,671,000
6,004,000
77
Giza Egypt
3,628,000
3,628,000
78
Urumqi China
3,550,000
3,550,000
79
Wuxi China
3,542,000
6,372,000
80
Busan South Korea
3,526,000
8,202,000
81
Guayaquil Ecuador
3,500,000
5,000,000
82
HANOI Vietnam
3,435,000
7,588,000
83
Hyderabad Pakistan
3,429,000
3,429,000
84
ADDIS ABABA Ethiopia
3,385,000
4,567,000
85
ALGIERS Algeria
3,336,000
5,000,000
86
Kano Nigeria
3,333,000
3,333,000
87
Mashhad Iran
3,312,000
3,372,000
88
Hefei China
3,310,000
5,484,000
89
Changzhou China
3,290,000
4,592,000
90
Taiyuan China
3,212,000
4,202,000
91
Rawalpindi Pakistan
3,189,000
3,189,000
92
Tangshan China
3,187,000
7,577,000
93
MADRID Spain
3,141,000
6,240,000
94
NAIROBI Kenya
3,138,000
6,547,000
95
Zibo China
3,129,000
4,131,000
96
Pune India
3,124,000
5,057,000
97
Ibadan Nigeria
3,050,000
3,520,000
98
Jaipur India
3,046,000
3,046,000
99
Guiyang China
3,037,000
4,024,000
100
Incheon South Korea
3,002,000
3,002,000
101
BRASILIA Brazil
2,978,000
2,978,000
102
TSHWANE (PRETORIA) South Africa
2,922,000
2,922,000
103
Kanpur India
2,920,000
4,152,000
104
Salvador Brazil
2,913,000
3,920,000
105
BUENOS AIRES Argentina
2,900,000
12,740,000
106
KIEV Ukraine
2,900,000
3,375,000
107
ROME Italy
2,877,000
4,353,000
108
Surabaya Indonesia
2,865,000
6,485,000
109
Izmir Turkey
2,848,000
4,113,000
110
Lucknow India
2,817,000
2,902,000
111
Basrah Iraq
2,750,000
2,750,000
112
Toronto Canada
2,731,000
5,928,000
113
Gujranwala Pakistan
2,723,000
2,723,000
114
Chicago USA
2,720,000
9,513,000
115
TAIPEI Taiwan
2,705,000
8,500,000
116
QUITO Ecuador
2,671,000
4,700,000
117
Osaka Japan
2,668,000
19,342,000
118
Xuzhou China
2,623,000
3,054,000
119
Fortaleza Brazil
2,610,000
4,019,000
120
Chittagong Bangladesh
2,581,000
4,009,000
121
PYONGYANG North Korea
2,581,000
2,581,000
122
Bandung Indonesia
2,575,000
8,465,000
123
Kaohsiung Taiwan
2,540,000
2,779,000
124
YAOUNDE Cameroon
2,535,000
2,765,000
125
Daegu South Korea
2,522,000
5,020,000
126
Taichung Taiwan
2,520,000
2,752,000
127
Belo Horizonte Brazil
2,502,000
5,156,000
128
Puebla Mexico
2,500,000
2,929,000
129
Douala Cameroon
2,447,000
3,000,000
130
Medellin Colombia
2,441,000
3,731,000
131
Nagpur India
2,405,000
2,498,000
132
Cali Colombia
2,401,000
3,400,000
133
Omdurman Sudan
2,396,000
2,396,000
134
Nanchang China
2,357,000
5,043,000
135
Brisbane Australia
2,500,000
3,500,000
136
Bursa Turkey
2,340,000
2,842,000
137
TASHKENT Uzbekistan
2,310,000
2,310,000
138
Houston USA
2,296,000
6,313,000
139
Nagoya Japan
2,283,000
9,107,000
140
MOGADISHU Somalia
2,265,000
2,265,000
141
Isfahen Iran
2,243,000
3,793,000
142
PARIS France
2,230,000
12,405,000
143
ACCRA Ghana
2,227,000
4,000,000
144
MANAGUA Nicaragua
2,206,000
2,561,000
145
Kowloon China
2,204,000
2,204,000
146
Lanzhou China
2,177,000
3,616,000
147
Baku Azerbaijan
2,122,000
2,724,000
148
GUATAMALA CITY Guatemala
2,110,000
4,500,000
149
LUANDA Angola
2,108,000
2,825,000
150
BUCHAREST Romania
2,106,000
2,281,000

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