User:BsBsBs/municipalities

This is a non-exhaustive list of the world's most populous municipalities, defined according to the concept of city proper. This list is limited to clear, unambiguously defined political jurisdictions which fall under the definition of municipality in the general sense of the word. For this list "City proper" follows the definition of a locality with legally fixed boundaries and an administratively recognized urban status that is usually characterized by some form of local government. For this list, "Municipality" is defined as an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory, it commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. A municipality is typically governed by a mayor and a city council or municipal council. This list does not include metropolitan areas which may include multiple cities under the jurisdiction of separate city councils which do not come under a common government of that metropolitan area. The list does not count statistical areas. This list contains some of the world's most populous urban municipal units and their resident population.

Municipality

Singapore is a country, a city, and a municipality

Municipality can take on many meanings throughout the world. In the English language, "municipality" is a generic term for any type of urban unit. In some countries, a municipality is the smallest administrative subdivision to have its own democratically elected representative leadership. In other countries, such as China, a direct-controlled municipality is a city with equal status to a province. Some municipalities, such as Monaco or Singapore are sovereign states. For the purpose of this list, municipality is used in its strictly generic sense, i.e. as "a primarily urban political unit having corporate status and usually powers of self-government."

City

The Osagawara Island Group belong to the city proper of Tokyo

Most of the entries in this list will be generally recognized as cities. This list of municipalities has become necessary because there is a debate whether certain cities should be called cities. Some examples follow.

• Tokyo is a prefecture-level city in Japan that is governed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government It itself contains twenty-three special wards (特別区 -ku), which translate themselves to "cities" Tokyo also includes 26 more cities (市 -shi), five towns (町 -chō or machi), and eight villages (村 -son or -mura), each of which has a local government. Numerous outlying islands, which extend as far as 1850 km from central Tokyo, belong to Tokyo. All are part of Tokyo proper.
• China has four direct-controlled municipalities with a status equal to a province: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing. These cities, especially Chongqing, can be quite large. The same applies to the sub-provincial cities and the prefecture-level cities of China.
• List of cities by surface area shows cities that are larger than many countries. It is debatable whether these large areas should be called cities or municipalities.
• From Singapore to Vatican City, there are several cities that are sovereign countries.

A city can be loosely or narrowly defined, depending on the respective country. This can create controversy. This list therefore uses the more generic term "municipality." In most cases, its entries will be understood as cities.

State or province

Vienna has the rank of an Austrian federal state

Quite often, the status of a city or municipality can be elevated to the level of a state or province. Tokyo is a prefecture-level city in Japan, as it has been mentioned above. The direct-controlled municipalities of China have a similar rank. The Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in North Korea, the Republic of Korea in South Korea, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Vietnam also adopt this concept. Other examples can be found throughout the world. Vienna has the rank of an Austrian state, Geneva and Basel-Stadt have the rank of Swiss cantons. Germany has several cities with the rank of a state: Hamburg, Bremen, and Berlin. Washington, D.C. is a federally administered municipality of the United States. To an outsider, it is sometimes challenging to decide whether the entity can still be called a municipality, or should rather be called a province or state.

One attempt is to determine whether the entity is divided into sub-units with their own government, in which case the entity would not longer be treated as a municipality. This concept fails, because many bona fide cities/municipalities have such subdivisions. For instance, the German city-states Hamburg, Bremen, and Berlin are divided in districts with some form of a government. Berlin has Bezirke (districts) with their own mayor and borough council. The 16 boroughs of Mexico City have significant autonomy, and their heads of government are elected. The wards of Tokyo have their own mayor. This list leaves the final determination of what is called a city or municipality to the sovereign states and the people who live there. If the entity is defined (in its own language) as a municipality or city, then this list counts it as such. If two or more entities form a metropolitan area without a common government, the entities are counted separately. If in doubt, common sense prevails.

Data Sources

Census taker visits a family living in a caravan, Netherlands 1925

This list treats the population data issued by the statistical bureau of the respective municipality as the most reliable source. Next up are statistical data provided by the statistical organizations of the respective countries. If the count differs, the count by the municipality prevails. This list attempts to use data that is as up to date as possible. In countries where there is a difference between the "registered" and the "floating" population, this list recognizes the sum of both. The list does not recognize commuters. It is accepted and recognized that there can be considerable differences between the quality and precision of data. Most countries perform a census in regular intervals, commonly every 10 years. Some countries provide regular estimates, sometimes based on smaller samples (micro census). This list discourages the usage of independently compiled lists of city populations. These lists are sometimes unreliable or come to misleading results due to differing methodology. If no government data are available, third party sources may be used, but their usage should be noted in the comments section.

Principle

The reader should be aware that there is no "right" way to define a city or municipality. "City proper" is one of the different ways. Other methods can be similarly valid, and result in similarly valid lists that show the municipality under a different perspective. The principle of this list is that the definition of administrative boundaries is a matter of the sovereign states and countries. This list will not redraw borders. For the purpose of this list, a resident who lives within certain administrative boundaries counts as a resident of the municipality or city. As long as the administrative area is that of a bona fide municipality, this list will recognize its population as a whole, regardless of the size of the city or municipality. This list does not include metropolitan areas which may include multiple cities under the jurisdiction of separate city councils which do not come under a common government of that metropolitan area. For instance, Berlin and Brandenburg are separate, because they do not share a common government. For the pupose of this list, the whole Tokyo Metropolis is counted as a city proper, because is shares a common Metropolitan Government. As outlined in city proper, there can be diverging definitions of "city proper" from country to country, and for the purpose of different reports. For the sake of consistency, this list strives to use one common definition of "city proper", namely the area within the administrative boundaries. The list does not count statistical areas. The population density is calculated given the population and the surface area of the municipality. The list can be sorted. This list enumerates the population within the city limits of some of the world's most populous municipalities. This list is in no particular order. It can be sorted using the sort button in the column headers.

Municipalities by population (city proper)

City	Population	Source	Definition	Area (km²)	Source	Population density (/km²)	Country	Remark
Shanghai	19,210,000		Direct-controlled municipality	7,037		2,730	China
Mumbai	11,900,000		Municipal Corporation	603		19,735	India	Based on census 2001
Karachi	18,000,000		City District	3,530		5,099	Pakistan
Delhi	13,780,000		Municipal Corporation	431		31,972	India
Istanbul	11,372,613		Metropolitan Municipality	1,831		6,211	Turkey
São Paulo	11,037,593		Municipality (Brazil)	1,523		7,247	Brazil
Moscow	10,508,971		City proper (includes Zelenograd)	1,081		9,722	Russia
Seoul	10,464,051		Special City	605		17,296	South Korea
Beijing	22,000,000		Direct-controlled municipality	16,808		1,309	China
Mexico City	8,841,916		Federal District	1,485		5,954	Mexico
Tokyo	12,989,000		Tokyo Metropolis	2,187		5,939	Japan
Kinshasa	8,754,000		City-Province	9,965		878	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Jakarta	8,489,910		Special capital district	664		12,786	Indonesia
New York City	8,363,710		City proper	789		10,600	United States
Lima	7,605,742		Province	2,670		2,849	Peru
London	7,619,800		Greater London	1,580		4,823	United Kingdom
Bogotá	7,259,597		Capital district	1,590		4,566	Colombia
Tehran	7,241,000		City proper	760		9,528	Iran	There is doubt whether this number is for the agglomeration or for the city proper. The UN source contradicts itself
Ho Chi Minh City	7,123,340		Direct-controlled municipality	2,095		3,400	Vietnam
Hanoi	6,448,837		Direct-controlled municipality	3,344		1,928	Vietnam
Hong Kong	7,026,400		Special Administrative Region	1,092		6,434	Hong Kong
Bangkok	7,025,000		Administrative area	1,569		4,477	Thailand
Dhaka	7,000,940		City Corporation	360		19,447	Bangladesh
Cairo	6,758,581		Governorate	214		31,582	Egypt
Lahore	6,318,745		City District	1,772		3,566	Pakistan	Based on 1998 census. Considered outdated. Estimate for 2010 8,592,000
Rio de Janeiro	6,186,710		Municipality (Brazil)	1,182		5,234	Brazil
Chongqing	32,570,500		Direct-controlled municipality	82,400		395	China
Bangalore	5,840,155		Municipal Corporation	709		8,237	India
Tianjin	11,760,000		Direct-controlled municipality	11,300		1,041	China
Baghdad	5,402,486		City proper	1,134		4,764	Iraq
Kolkata	5,138,208		Municipal Corporation	185		27,774	India
Singapore	4,987,600		Country/City	710		7,025	Singapore
Riyadh	4,848,000		City proper	800		6,060	Saudi Arabia
Chennai	4,616,639		Municipal Corporation	187		24,688	India
Saint Petersburg	4,581,854		City proper	1,439		3,184	Russia
Surat	4,523,022		Municipal Corporation	327		13,852	India
Yangon	4,350,000		City proper	599		7,262	Myanmar
Guangzhou	10,182,000		sub-provincial city	7,434		1,370	China
Shenzhen	8,768,300		sub-provincial city	1,953		4,490	China
Dongguan	6,949,800		Prefecture-level city	2,465		2,819	China
Zhanjiang	6,902,400		Prefecture-level city	12,471		553	China
Maoming	6,123,700		Prefecture-level city	11,458		534	China
Shijiazhuang	9,170,000		Prefecture-level city	15,848		579	China
Alexandria	4,110,015		Governorate	2,680		1,534	Egypt
Shenyang	7,100,000		Prefecture-level city	12,942		549	China
Hyderabad	4,068,611		Municipal Corporation	621		6,547	India
Ahmedabad	3,959,432		Municipal Corporation	204		19,409	India
Ankara	3,901,201		Metropolitan Municipality	2,516		1,551	Turkey
Johannesburg	3,888,180		Metropolitan Municipality	1,645		2,364	South Africa
Los Angeles	3,849,378		City proper	1,290		2,984	United States
Wuhan	8,970,000		Prefecture-level city	8,494		1,056	China
Yokohama	3,672,789		City proper	435		8,443	Japan
Abidjan	3,660,682		Department/District	2,119		1,728	Ivory Coast
Busan	3,574,340		Metropolitan City	766		4,666	South Korea
Cape Town	3,497,097		Metropolitan Municipality	2,455		1,424	South Africa
Durban	3,468,086		Metropolitan Municipality	2,292	1513	1,513	South Africa
Pune	3,157,000		Municipal Corporation	430		7,342	India
Berlin	3,442,700		City state	892		3,860	Germany
Pyongyang	3,255,388		Direct-controlled municipality	3,194		1,019	North Korea
Jeddah	3,234,000		City proper	1,230		2,629	Saudi Arabia
Kanpur	3,221,435		Municipal Corporation	267		12,065	India
Madrid	3,213,271		Municipality	698		4,604	Spain
Jaipur	3,210,570		Municipal Corporation	485		6,620	India
Buenos Aires	3,050,728		Autonomous city	203		15,028	Argentina
Nairobi	3,038,553		Province	696		4,366	Kenya

A City proper is usually characterized by some form of local government

Some cities, such as New York City are the core of a much larger conurbation

Some cities, such as Chongqing have large rural areas within their city limits

See also

• Lists of cities
• List of cities proper by population (applies inconsistent criteria to city proper)
• World's largest cities (explaining alternative measures)
• List of cities by surface area
• Cities of present-day nations and states
• List of capitals by population density
• List of towns and cities with 100,000 or more inhabitants
• Historical urban community sizes
• List of cities by population density (Based on the entire city proper)
• List of largest cities throughout history
• List of metropolitan areas by population (based on study by Richard Forstall, Richard Greene, and James Pick)
• List of urban areas by population (list of contiguous urban areas of the world based on Demographia)
• Rank mobility index (measure of a city's change in population rank among a group of cities)

External links

• The largest cities in the world and their mayors 2010
• World's largest cities (Table 1: With suburbs, Table 2: Without suburbs)
• Largest cities of the world (municipalities)
• Mega Cities
• Major cities of the world (in Finnish)
• China now home to one quarter of world’s largest cities, UN reports