The World’s 10 Largest Cities: The Population Ranking

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents The World’s 10 Largest Cities: The Population Ranking.

TVS News AI editorial team presents The World’s 10 Largest Cities: The Population Ranking.

Tokyo and Delhi lead the population ranking

Tokyo ranks first, followed by Delhi in second place. Shanghai takes third place. The Handelsblatt compares the metropolises by their population, meaning the number of people living in each city region under consideration.

This may initially sound simple, but it is important for large cities: A city can formally appear small and still encompass a vast metropolis if several municipalities are administratively combined.

Why the city region changes the ranking

The decisive difference lies in how the areas are defined. A city region comprises the center and the directly adjacent municipalities. As a result, not only the core city is counted, but also the densely built-up surrounding area.

For Tokyo, for example, the comparison covers not only the population of the former prefecture, but also that of today’s metropolitan region and its neighboring districts. The same expanded geographical definition applies to Delhi and Shanghai.

The ranking therefore highlights a common misconception: The population and area of an administrative municipality are not the same thing. Anyone comparing cities must first check which boundaries and definition are being used.

What the ranking reveals about global population growth

According to the Handelsblatt, the global population is steadily growing. At the same time, the ranking shows that this development is particularly concentrated in major metropolises. The world’s 10 most populous cities therefore form the urban centers of human settlement.

For those looking at the list, this means it is less about administratively small city centers than about **vast, functionally connected urban areas**. That is precisely why the city region is the more meaningful unit for this comparison.

The 10 largest cities at a glance

• 1. Tokyo
• 2. Delhi
• 3. Shanghai
• 4. São Paulo
• 5. Mexico City
• 6. Cairo
• 7. Mumbai
• 8. Beijing
• 9. Dhaka
• 10. Osaka

You can find the full ranking and further details on the definition used in the Handelsblatt analysis.