Megacity
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A megacity is a very large
The total number of megacities in the world varies between different sources: The world had 33 according to the UN (in 2018), 45 according to CityPopulation.de (in 2023), and 44 according to
List of megacities
It has been suggested that this section be merged into List of largest cities. (Discuss) Proposed since March 2024. |
Megacity | Image | Country | Region | Estimated population | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CityPopulation.de 2023[9] |
Demographia 2023[8] |
UN DESA 2018[5] | ||||
Bangalore | India
|
South Asia | 13,700,000 | 15,257,000 | 11,440,000 | |
Bangkok | Thailand
|
Southeast Asia | 20,500,000 | 18,884,000 | 10,156,000 | |
Beijing | China | East Asia | 20,900,000 | 18,883,000 | 19,618,000 | |
Bogotá | Colombia
|
South America | 10,200,000 | 10,252,000 | 10,574,000 | |
Buenos Aires | Argentina | South America | 16,700,000 | 15,748,000 | 14,967,000 | |
Cairo | Egypt
|
North Africa | 22,200,000 | 22,679,000 | 20,076,000 | |
Changsha | China | East Asia | 10,500,000 | 5,065,000 | 4,345,000 | |
Chengdu | China | East Asia | 16,600,000 | 15,016,000 | 8,813,000 | |
Chennai | India
|
South Asia | 12,200,000 | 11,570,000 | 10,456,000 | |
Chongqing | China | East Asia | 10,500,000 | 12,653,000 | 14,838,000 | |
Delhi | India
|
South Asia | 33,400,000 | 31,190,000 | 28,514,000 | |
Dhaka | Bangladesh
|
South Asia | 21,300,000 | 19,134,000 | 19,578,000 | |
Dongguan | China | East Asia | Combined with Guangzhou |
10,753,000 | 7,360,000 | |
Guangzhou | China | East Asia | 67,800,000 | 27,119,000 | 12,638,000 | |
Hangzhou | China | East Asia | 13,400,000 | 9,618,000 | 7,236,000 | |
Ho Chi Minh City | Vietnam | Southeast Asia | 13,500,000 | 14,953,000 | 8,145,000 | |
Hyderabad | India
|
South Asia | 11,100,000 | 9,797,000 | 9,482,000 | |
Istanbul | Turkey
|
Europe, West Asia | 16,100,000 | 14,441,000 | 14,751,000 | |
Jakarta | Indonesia
|
Southeast Asia | 28,900,000 | 35,386,000 | 10,517,000 | |
Johannesburg | South Africa
|
Southern Africa | 14,800,000 | 15,551,000 | 5,486,000 | |
Karachi | Pakistan
|
South Asia | 19,100,000 | 20,249,000 | 15,400,000 | |
Kinshasa | DR Congo
|
Central Africa | 15,000,000 | 13,493,000 | 13,171,000 | |
Kolkata | India
|
South Asia | 17,400,000 | 21,747,000 | 14,681,000 | |
Lagos | Nigeria
|
West Africa | 21,400,000 | 14,540,000 | 13,463,000 | |
Lahore | Pakistan
|
South Asia | 14,400,000 | 13,504,000 | 11,738,000 | |
Lima | Peru | South America | 11,600,000 | 10,556,000 | 10,391,000 | |
London | United Kingdom
|
Northern Europe | 14,800,000 | 10,803,000 | 9,046,000 | |
Los Angeles | United States
|
North America | 17,700,000 | 15,587,000 | 12,458,000 | |
Luanda | Angola
|
Central Africa | 9,000,000 | 10,914,000 | 7,774,000 | |
Metro Manila | Philippines
|
Southeast Asia | 26,700,000 | 24,156,000 | 13,482,000 | |
Mexico City | Mexico | Central America | 24,900,000 | 21,905,000 | 21,581,000 | |
Moscow | Russia
|
Eastern Europe | 18,800,000 | 17,878,000 | 12,410,000 | |
Mumbai | India
|
South Asia | 26,600,000 | 25,189,000 | 19,980,000 | |
Nagoya | Japan | East Asia | 10,500,000 | 9,439,000 | 9,507,000 | |
New York City | United States
|
North America | 23,100,000 | 21,396,000 | 18,819,000 | |
Osaka | Japan | East Asia | 17,700,000 | 14,916,000 | 19,281,000 | |
Paris | France
|
Western Europe | 11,400,000 | 11,108,000 | 10,901,000 | |
Rio de Janeiro | Brazil
|
South America | 13,400,000 | 12,306,000 | 13,293,000 | |
São Paulo | Brazil
|
South America | 23,000,000 | 21,486,000 | 21,650,000 | |
Seoul | South Korea | East Asia | 24,900,000 | 23,225,000 | 9,963,000 | |
Shanghai | China | East Asia | 40,000,000 | 24,042,000 | 25,582,000 | |
Shenzhen | China | East Asia | Combined with Guangzhou |
17,778,000 | 11,908,000 | |
Tehran | Iran
|
West Asia | 16,200,000 | 13,382,000 | 8,896,000 | |
Tianjin | China | East Asia | 11,400,000 | 10,047,000 | 13,215,000 | |
Tokyo | Japan | East Asia | 40,800,000 | 37,785,000 | 37,468,000 | |
Wuhan | China | East Asia | 11,800,000 | 10,353,000 | 8,176,000 | |
Xiamen | China | East Asia | 14,500,000 | 5,253,000 | 3,585,000 | |
Xi'an | China | East Asia | 12,300,000 | 12,211,000 | 7,444,000 | |
Zhengzhou | China | East Asia | 9,450,000 | 11,068,000 | 4,940,000 |
History
The term "megacity" entered common use in the late 19th or early 20th centuries; one of the earliest documented uses of the term was by the University of Texas in 1904.[12] Initially the United Nations used the term to describe cities of 8 million or more inhabitants, but now uses the threshold of 10 million.[13] In the mid 1970s the term was coined by urbanist Janice Perlman referring to the phenomenon of very large urban agglomerations.[14]
In 1800, only 3% of the world's population lived in cities, a figure that rose to 47% by the end of the twentieth century. In 1950, there were 83 cities with populations exceeding one million; by 2007, this number had risen to 468.[15] The UN forecasts that today's urban population of 3.2 billion will rise to nearly 5 billion by 2030, when three out of five, or 60%, of people will live in cities.[16] This increase will be most dramatic on the least-urbanized continents,
By 2025, Asia alone will have at least 30 megacities, including Mumbai, India (2015 population of 20.75 million people), Shanghai, China (2015 population of 35.5 million people), Delhi, India (2015 population of 21.8 million people), Tokyo, Japan (2015 population of 38.8 million people) and Seoul, South Korea (2015 population of 25.6 million people). In Africa, Lagos, Nigeria has grown from 300,000 in 1950 to an estimated 21 million today.
Growth
For almost five hundred years, Rome was the largest, wealthiest, and most politically important city in Europe.[21] Its population passed one million people by the end of the 1st century BC.[22] Rome's population started declining in 402 AD when Flavius Honorius, Western Roman Emperor from 395 to 423, moved the government to Ravenna and Rome's population declined to a mere 20,000 during the Early Middle Ages, reducing the sprawling city to groups of inhabited buildings interspersed among large areas of ruins and vegetation.
From around 1825 to 1918 London was the largest city in the world, with the population growing rapidly; it was the first city to reach a population of over 5 million in 1900. In 1950, New York City was the only urban area with a population of over 10 million.[26] Geographers had identified 25 such areas as of October 2005,[27] as compared with 19 megacities in 2004 and only nine in 1985. This increase has happened as the world's population moves towards the high (75–85%) urbanization levels of North America and Western Europe.
Since the 2000s, the largest megacity has been the
A characteristic issue of megacities is the difficulty in defining their outer limits and accurately estimating the populations.Another list defines megacities as
Challenges
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: A lot of vague statements without up-to-date / worldwide-applicable supporting examples or data. Can also be further expanded. (May 2014) |
Slums
According to the United Nations, the proportion of urban dwellers living in
Crime
As with any large concentration of people, there is usually crime.[34][35] High population densities often result in higher crime rates, as visibly seen in growing megacities such as Karachi, Delhi, Cairo, Rio de Janeiro, and Lagos.[36]
Homelessness
Megacities often have significant numbers of homeless people. The actual legal definition of homelessness varies from country to country, or among different entities or institutions in the same country or region.[37]
In 2002, research showed that children and families were the largest growing segment of the homeless population in the United States,[38][39] and this has presented new challenges, especially in services, to agencies. In the US, the government asked many major cities to come up with a ten-year plan to end homelessness. One of the results of this was a "
Traffic congestion
Urban sprawl
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification are terms for the socio-cultural changes in an area as a result of wealthier people buying property in a less prosperous community.[43] As living costs rise, lower-income residents are forced to move out of the community leading to an increase in average income, which in turn makes the area more desirable to other wealthier property or business owners, further pushing the living costs up. This process also tends to lead to a decrease in average family size in the area. This type of population change reduces industrial land use when it is redeveloped for commerce and housing.
Air pollution
Energy and material resources
The sheer size and complexity of megacities gives rise to enormous social and environmental challenges. Whether megacities can develop sustainably depends to a large extent on how they obtain, share, and manage their energy and material resources. There are correlations between
In fiction
Megacities are a common backdrop in
See also
- Economies of agglomeration
- Global city
- List of largest cities
- List of largest cities throughout history
- Megalopolis
- Urban sprawl
References
- ^ "Definition of megacity in English". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on March 27, 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
- ^ "megacity meaning". Cambridge English Dictionary. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
- .
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- ^ a b c "World Urbanization Prospects, The 2018 Revision" (PDF). UN DESA. 7 August 2019. p. 77. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 March 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ Kötter, Theo; Friesecke, Frank (1 March 2009). "Developing urban Indicators for Managing Mega Cities". World Bank. University of Bonn.
- ^ a b "Land Use and Land Use Change". seos-project.eu. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
- ^ Demographia. August 2023. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
- ^ a b c "Major Agglomerations of the World - Population Statistics and Maps". City Population. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
- ^ Van Mead, Nick (January 28, 2015). "China's Pearl River Delta overtakes Tokyo as world's largest megacity". The Guardian. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
- ^ Weller, Chris (July 8, 2015). "The world's largest megacity already has more people than Canada, Argentina, or Australia". Business Insider. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
- ^ "Hemisfile: perspectives on political and economic trends in the Americas". 5–8. Institute of the Americas. 1904: 12. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
{{cite journal}}
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(help) - ^ "Population Reports: Special topics" (15–19). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University. 1981: 38.
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(help) - ISBN 9780415252256.
- ^ "Principal Agglomerations of the World". Citypopulation.de. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ "Megacities Of The Future". Forbes.com. 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ "Nigeria: Lagos, the mega-city of slums and plums". Energypublisher.com. Archived from the original on February 18, 2011. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ Whitehouse, David (2005-05-19). "Half of humanity set to go urban". BBC News. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ "Planet of Slums – The Third World's Megacities". Blackcommentator.com. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ "State of World Population 2007". Unfpa.org. Archived from the original on 2009-01-22. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ "Roman Empire Population". Unrv.com. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ "Population crises and cycles in history". Home.vicnet.net.au. Archived from the original on April 5, 2011. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ "Largest Cities Through History". Geography.about.com. 2010-06-16. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ New Book of Tang, vol. 41 (Zhi vol. 27) Geography 1.
- ^ Metropolis: Angkor, the world's first mega-city, The Independent, August 15, 2007
- ^ Tertius Chandler, 1987, St. David's University Press. "Top 10 Cities of the Year 1950". Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census. Retrieved 2007-03-24.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Population statistics". Citypopulation.de. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ "Greater Tokyo population statistics". Stat.go.jp. 2008-10-01. Archived from the original on April 11, 2008. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ "Tokyo metropolitan area population statistics". Citypopulation.de. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ "World Megacities - Urban Areas with More than 10,000,000 Population (2015)" (PDF). Demographia.
- ^ Society, National Geographic (2018-08-28). "The Age of Megacities". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
- ^ "ESPON project 1.4.3 Study on Urban Functions Final Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2013-08-07.
- ^ "p. 26" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-09-01.
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- ISBN 9781597975513. Retrieved 2014-05-03.
- ^ "Glossary defining homelessness". Homeless.org.au. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
- ^ FACS, "Homeless Children, Poverty, Faith and Community: Understanding and Reporting the Local Story", March 26, 2002 Akron, Ohio. "Homeless Children, Poverty, Faith and Community: Understanding and Reporting the Local Story". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2006-10-24.
- ^ National Coalition for the Homeless, "Homeless Youth" 2005 "Homeless Youth" (PDF). (164 KB)
- ^ Abel, David, "For the homeless, keys to a home: Large-scale effort to keep many off street faces hurdles", Boston Globe, February 24, 2008.
- NOWTV program, December 21, 2007.
- ^ What is Sprawl? Archived 2010-01-05 at the Wayback Machine. SprawlCity.org. Retrieved on 2008-02-07.
- ^ Benjamin Grant (June 17, 2003). "PBS Documentaries with a point of view: What is Gentrification?". Public Broadcasting Service.
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