This "megacity" has overtaken Tokyo to become the world's largest city
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Fireworks light up the night sky to mark New Year 2025 in Jakarta, Indonesia, on January 1, 2025. Photo: Kevin Herbian/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Jakarta is now the biggest city in the world.
The big picture: It's what is known as a megacity, population-dense hubs that are becoming more frequent across the globe. Per a new report from the United Nations, approximately 45% of the world's population lives in a city, and Jakarta is home to nearly 42 million.
- The U.N.'s "World Urbanization Prospects 2025" report, released on Nov. 18, is the first revision since 2018 — when Tokyo was the world's largest city and Jakarta was ranked 33rd.
- Tokyo is now ranked third among the most populous cities with its 33 million residents. Dhaka, Bangladesh, is second with 40 million people.
- Cairo, Egypt, was the only non-Asian city to rank among the top 10.
- The report, which comes from the U.N.'s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, highlights how city growth and expansion can offer warnings about sustainable development worldwide.
Worthy of your time: Dhaka is expected to become the world's largest city by the middle of the century, per the U.N.
- Tokyo, meanwhile, is expected to fall from third in 2025 to seventh by 2050.
Megacities around the world
The U.N. defines a megacity as a population center with 10 million or more inhabitants.
- More than half of the megacities (19) are in Asia.
- There are two megacities in the U.S. — Los Angeles and New York City.
Megacities are expanding, according to the U.N., as the number of them has quadrupled from eight in 1975 to 33 in 2025.
- The U.N. projects there will be 37 megacities by 2050.
The next megacities
The U.N.'s report highlighted what areas are expected to be the next megacities and surpass the 10 million mark, including:
- Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania.
- Hajipur, India.
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Cities projected to expand faster than megacities
Zoom in: Small and medium-sized cities are still home to more people than megacities overall, and they're growing more quickly, per the U.N. report.
- By 2050, there could be more than 15,000 cities worldwide — with the majority having populations below 250,000, the U.N. report says.
Yes, but: The U.N. report says that some city populations are declining even as their country's population grows.
- Two major cities — Mexico City and Chengdu, China — saw a decrease in populations despite their immense size.
Go deeper: The global megacity boom
