Description
Which city has the most people on Earth? Climb all 100 of the world's biggest cities, from #100 to #1, with each city's 2025 population, the UN's forecast for 2050 and one quick fact.
The numbers come from the United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects 2025. The UN measures every city the same way: the whole continuous, densely built-up urban area (at least 1,500 people per square kilometre), not the official city limits. That is why Jakarta is now #1, Tokyo is #3, and some names you may not expect, like Hajipur in India and Chaozhou in China, make the list.
Keep an eye on the background: hot-air balloons, a friendly dragon, sky lanterns, a flying sailing ship, a giant robot, a sky whale, Santa's sleigh, a comet, a meteor shower and a rocket launch for #1.
Every city (timestamps):
0:00 Intro
0:02 #100 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
0:06 #99 Damascus, Syria
0:09 #98 Kumasi, Ghana
0:12 #97 Kanpur, India
0:16 #96 Harbin, China
0:19 #95 Mogadishu, Somalia
0:22 #94 Casablanca, Morocco
0:26 #93 Cape Town, South Africa
0:29 #92 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
0:32 #91 Saint Petersburg, Russia
0:35 #90 Hong Kong
0:39 #89 Kano, Nigeria
0:42 #88 Islamabad, Pakistan
0:45 #87 Hefei, China
0:49 #86 Zhengzhou, China
0:52 #85 Kampala, Uganda
0:55 #84 Singapore
0:59 #83 Chattogram, Bangladesh
1:02 #82 Lucknow, India
1:05 #81 Hanoi, Vietnam
1:08 #80 Kochi, India
1:12 #79 Yaoundé, Cameroon
1:15 #78 Colombo, Sri Lanka
1:18 #77 Xi'an, China
1:22 #76 Dubai, United Arab Emirates
1:25 #75 Mashhad, Iran
1:28 #74 Toronto, Canada
1:32 #73 Faisalabad, Pakistan
1:35 #72 Madrid, Spain
1:38 #71 Accra, Ghana
1:41 #70 Yangon, Myanmar
1:45 #69 Onitsha, Nigeria
1:48 #68 Kabul, Afghanistan
1:51 #67 Shenyang, China
1:55 #66 Kozhikode, India
1:58 #65 Nairobi, Kenya
2:01 #64 Chengdu, China
2:05 #63 Baghdad, Iraq
2:08 #62 Amman, Jordan
2:11 #61 Chaozhou, China
2:14 #60 Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
2:18 #59 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2:21 #58 Santiago, Chile
2:24 #57 Nanjing, China
2:28 #56 Khartoum, Sudan
2:31 #55 Pune, India
2:34 #54 Surabaya, Indonesia
2:38 #53 Surat, India
2:41 #52 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2:44 #51 Chongqing, China
2:47 #50 Johannesburg, South Africa
2:51 #49 Nagoya, Japan
2:54 #48 Alexandria, Egypt
2:57 #47 Tianjin, China
3:01 #46 Wuhan, China
3:04 #45 Hangzhou, China
3:07 #44 Ahmedabad, India
3:11 #43 Suzhou, China
3:14 #42 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
3:17 #41 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
3:20 #40 Bandung, Indonesia
3:24 #39 Taipei, Taiwan
3:27 #38 Tehran, Iran
3:30 #37 Hyderabad, India
3:34 #36 Paris, France
3:37 #35 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
3:40 #34 Hajipur, India
3:44 #33 London, United Kingdom
3:47 #32 Lima, Peru
3:50 #31 Bogotá, Colombia
3:53 #30 Kinshasa, DR Congo
3:57 #29 Chennai, India
4:00 #28 Luanda, Angola
4:03 #27 Los Angeles, United States
4:07 #26 Lagos, Nigeria
4:10 #25 Osaka, Japan
4:13 #24 Bengaluru, India
4:17 #23 Shenzhen, China
4:20 #22 New York City, United States
4:23 #21 Buenos Aires, Argentina
4:26 #20 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
4:30 #19 Moscow, Russia
4:33 #18 Istanbul, Türkiye
4:36 #17 Lahore, Pakistan
4:40 #16 Beijing, China
4:43 #15 Mexico City, Mexico
4:46 #14 Bangkok, Thailand
4:50 #13 São Paulo, Brazil
4:53 #12 Mumbai, India
4:56 #11 Karachi, Pakistan
4:59 #10 Seoul, South Korea
5:03 #9 Kolkata, India
5:06 #8 Manila, Philippines
5:09 #7 Cairo, Egypt
5:13 #6 Guangzhou, China
5:16 #5 Shanghai, China
5:19 #4 New Delhi, India
5:23 #3 Tokyo, Japan
5:26 #2 Dhaka, Bangladesh
5:29 #1 Jakarta, Indonesia
5:32 All 100 together
Sources
Population (2025 estimates) and 2050 forecasts: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects 2025, file WUP2025-F18 (100 largest cities) and the data booklet The World's Cities in 2025 (un.org/development/desa/pd).
Facts: checked against the UNESCO World Heritage List (whc.unesco.org), Wikipedia, news reports and the UN data above.
Photos: 79 from Flickr via the Google Open Images dataset (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0) and 20 from Wikimedia Commons via the Google Landmarks Dataset v2 (Creative Commons BY or BY-SA, the licence is shown under each photo), cropped to squares. Each photographer is named on screen under their photo and in the pinned comment. Globe map (#69 Onitsha): Natural Earth land data (public domain) with GeoNames city coordinates (CC BY 4.0).
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