Some Statistical maps collected from internet, taken from various sources.

You are free to add more maps found on the web.

Megacities - Growth in Megacities 1950-2015

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/world_maps/megacities_1950_2015.jpg

'One Milllion' Cities in 2006

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/2006megacities.PNG

Supercities 2002

http://www.megacities.uni-koeln.de/documentation/megacity/map/MC-2015-PGM.jpg

'Qualified' Megacities
http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/9904/World.JPG

CITIES WITH POPULATIONS OF MORE THAN 10 MILLION (MEGACITIES)

http://www.fao.org/docrep/W9500E/w9500e24.gif

What the hell?

Portland, OR can't be a '1 million' city!

That would mean at least 1/3 of the whole state lives there.

So many maps and not one of them correct. I like the first one though, now if only they could get their definitions right and comparable.

Beijing is already at 22 million and rapidly growing. Shanghai is probably approaching 30 million soon.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-02/26/content_9511839.htm
Beijing's population exceeds 22 million

By Qi Xiao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-02-26 17:22

Beijing's total population has exceeded 22 million, a mark that is supposed to be surpassed a decade later, the China National Radio reported today.

According to Beijing's latest "overall plan", the city should control the number of population at 18 million by the end of 2020. However, the combined population of permanent and non-permanent residents currently already exceeds 22 million, with the latter standing at eight to nine million, the report said.

The non-permanent residents will keep increasing rapidly, the report added.

Where are Paris, London, and Moscow in the 10+ million cities? (and nevermind the first image, that seems to be missing most of the world's megacities. I'm assuming that was intentional though)


Portland, OR can't be a '1 million' city!

That would mean at least 1/3 of the whole state lives there.

Why can 1/3 of the state not live there? Thats the case in many other states. And remember that its metro spreads into Washington.

And for the record, the 2009 metro estimate is 2,159,720.


But I'm seeing some cities missing from that chart too...Edmonton, Valencia, Oslo, etc.

What the hell?

Portland, OR can't be a '1 million' city!

That would mean at least 1/3 of the whole state lives there.

A large portion of Portland's urban population lives in neighboring Washington.

But I'm seeing some cities missing from that chart too...Edmonton, Valencia, Oslo, etc.

Only cities with more than 1 million inhabitants within the municipal area are counted in that map.

Edmonton: ca. 782.000 inhabitants
Valencia (Spain): ca. ca.805.000 inhabitants
Oslo: ca. 580.000 inhabitants

Only cities with more than 1 million inhabitants within the municipal area are counted in that map.

Edmonton: ca. 782.000 inhabitants
Valencia (Spain): ca. ca.805.000 inhabitants
Oslo: ca. 580.000 inhabitants
Then why are there A LOT of cities marked that also don't have 1 million in the city proper?

A short sample:

Helsinki, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Porto, Lisbon, Athens, Dublin, Stockholm.

ALL cities in the UK except London.
ALL cities in Germany except Berlin, Hamburg and Munich
ALL cities in the US except NY, LA, Chicago, Philly, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Jose and San Diego
ALL cities in Australia/NZ



Plus there are also 1 million cities that are not on the map:
Yokohama, Kawasaki, Kobe, Kyoto...

Only cities with more than 1 million inhabitants within the municipal area are counted in that map.

Edmonton: ca. 782.000 inhabitants
Valencia (Spain): ca. ca.805.000 inhabitants
Oslo: ca. 580.000 inhabitants


No they're not. A majority of the USA's cities have less than 1,000,000 people. They're counting the urban areas.


Also - I'm pretty sure Portland has 2.2 million in the metro, so it's well over 1 million.

The Oregon portion is around 1.6 million - or roughly 42% of the state's population.

They're counting the urban areas.

If so, they're doing it in a very apples to oranges way. Not that urban area is an accurate measure of a city anyway.

Where are Paris, London, and Moscow in the 10+ million cities? (and nevermind the first image, that seems to be missing most of the world's megacities. I'm assuming that was intentional though)
For the first map, regarding Paris, if they mean the urban areas (excluding the satellite cities and commuter belts), then the urban area of Paris had 6.1 million inhabitants in 1950, 9.8 million in 2000, and at the current growth rate it will have 10.9 million inhabitants in 2015.

If they mean the metropolitan areas, then the Paris metropolitan area had 6.1 million inhabitants in 1950 (same population as the urban area, because there were no satellite cities and no commuter belt at the time), 11.3 million in 2000, and at the current growth rate it will have 12.6 million inhabitants in 2015 (according to the rather conservative French definition of metropolitan areas).

ooooh this is interesting, but is it accurate?

Now I see, that you are right. It must be urban areas. But Anderson Geimz is right too:

If so, they're doing it in a very apples to oranges way. Not that urban area is an accurate measure of a city anyway.

Some cities have rural areas within their municipal borders, other cities have lots of urban area around the municipality. And then there is the problem of what exactly defines an urban area. Where is the border between urban and rural area? And how to count an urban area which includes at least two similar sized cities?

Using urban area will always favour low density sprawling cities like in North America or Australia and underestimate well defined compact cities with green belts like in Europe.

Anyway, using metro area will give you 50 over 1m in the US (plus 6 more in Canada), about 100 over 1m in Europe (85 in the EU alone) and some 234 over 1m in China.

There are at least 4 urban agglomerations with >1 million people missing in the map that shows Brazil.

ooooh this is interesting, but is it accurate?
What is?

What is?

the maps...

Australian cities never make it on to any map :lol:. Maybe in a few hundred years we'll have a 20mil+ city ;)

Australian cities never make it on to any map :lol:. Maybe in a few hundred years we'll have a 20mil+ city ;)

Well technically Perth has a city population of what 20,000? The CBD is basically the city limits. The metro is made up of tens of cities, town, and shires.

If so, they're doing it in a very apples to oranges way. Not that urban area is an accurate measure of a city anyway.

Exactly.

The urban area population clearly does not represent the true extent of a city. (And don't even bother with city proper...)

In addition, the UN maps are absolute garbage. :ohno:
The UN's list of "urban agglomerations", upon which some of those maps are based, is a combination of urban areas, metropolitan areas and cities proper, as shown here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_agglomerations_by_population_%28United_Nations%29).

Yes I realise it's Wikipedia, but it is directly from the UN reference.

Although the following lists are not perfect, they are far more accurate and consistent than the UN list. The website www.citypopulation.de includes an interactive map.

WORLD'S LARGEST METROPOLITAN AREAS

World Gazetteer (http://world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1&men=gcis&lng=en&des=gamelan&col=abcdefghinoq&msz=1500&pt=a&va=&srt=pnao) (2010)

CityPopulation.de (http://www.citypopulation.de/world/Agglomerations.html) (2010)

PopulationData.net (http://www.populationdata.net/palmaresvilles.php) (various)

Largest metro areas in Europe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_in_Europe_by_population) (various)

I always liked ESPON the best.

edit.

Although the following lists are not perfect, they are far more accurate and consistent than the UN list. The website www.citypopulation.de includes an interactive map.

WORLD'S LARGEST METROPOLITAN AREAS

World Gazetteer (http://world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1&men=gcis&lng=en&des=gamelan&col=abcdefghinoq&msz=1500&pt=a&va=&srt=pnao) (2010)


They count Manchester and Liverpool as one? Did they count JC in with NYC?

Is that Shanghai number correct? I would expect it to be much higher.. Shanghai looks so massive!

Is that Shanghai number correct? I would expect it to be much higher.. Shanghai looks so massive!

If all New Yorkers would live in highrises, for sure NYC would look very massive, too.

Is that Shanghai number correct? I would expect it to be much higher.. Shanghai looks so massive!
Which Shanghai number?

Refer to my post above yours-- Beijing, the second largest city in China, has surpassed 22 million inhabitants. Shanghai is probably approaching 30 million.

They count Manchester and Liverpool as one? Did they count JC in with NYC?

Some lists do and others don't - I suppose they use different criteria.
But Jersey City and New York are basically separated only by the Hudson river, so they're not comparable to Manchester and Liverpool.

Is that Shanghai number correct? I would expect it to be much higher.. Shanghai looks so massive!

Not in the links I posted - undercounting is a problem with the figures for Chinese cities in all of the above lists.

They counted Juarez and El Paso as one city, even tho they are in different countries :nuts:

Which Shanghai number?

Refer to my post above yours-- Beijing, the second largest city in China, has surpassed 22 million inhabitants. Shanghai is probably approaching 30 million.

no, shanghai has ~25 mill inhabitants as for now, including illegal immigrants. it will take a few more years till it reaches 30 mill, my guess: 2015 (if you take the rough estimate of 1 mill people coming to shanghai every year, but then again some stay and some go home).

Is Shanghai (at right) connected up to Suzhou (population 6.3 million, at right of the lake)? That is the question.

btw for all the cities here, the urban population is about 55 million


http://www.iseis.cuhk.edu.hk/groundstation/event/shanghi.jpg

Also population over 30 million - Guangzhou-Foshan-Dongguan-Shenzhen contiguous, with 45 million metro (in an area smaller than LA).
If you were to include HK this would in fact be the biggest city in the world, but because of the border it isn't normally included:

http://www.geocarto.com/images/P-107_large.jpg http://www.chinabusinessreview.com/public/0305/images/lemancallout7.gif

The connection here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=shenzhen&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=24.670754,43.813477&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Shenzhen,+Guangdong,+China&ll=22.895153,113.57666&spn=1.195497,1.369171&t=k&z=10

Yes. maybe a few years, then the Pearl River Delta will merge into one metropolitan area, the only one who can compete with Tokyo who the number one is.

I also made a map, source is citypopulation.de, definitions are sometimes out of administrative boundaries.

http://www.bilderload.com/bild/29432/ballungsraeumewachstum2009FLKFD.png

Now in Morocco they are telling us they overestimated the populations of the country and the cities
casablanca is the 129th largest metro area in the world and the largest in Morocco
I used to hear all types of crazy stats and some people in casablanca though the area had up to 20 million people hard to believe that
after extensive research and census Greater casablanca is not more than 4 million people

no, shanghai has ~25 mill inhabitants as for now, including illegal immigrants. it will take a few more years till it reaches 30 mill, my guess: 2015 (if you take the rough estimate of 1 mill people coming to shanghai every year, but then again some stay and some go home).
I used the word "approaching", so while it hasn't surpassed 30 million just yet, it will in a matter of years.

I also made a map, source is citypopulation.de, definitions are sometimes out of administrative boundaries.

http://www.bilderload.com/bild/29432/ballungsraeumewachstum2009FLKFD.png

Terrific work. :applause:

http://nordpil.com/static/images/world_cities_map.png

Nice but lacking.

Where's Barcelona for instance?

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/4653/lightseuropelrg.gif

Santiago less than 1 million??? :nuts:

It belongs to the big circle!! more than 5...

I also made a map, source is citypopulation.de, definitions are sometimes out of administrative boundaries.
You've got to update your map for Madrid and Barcelona. They are now not growing as fast as on your map. In 2009 the province of Madrid grew by only 0.65%. The province of Barcelona grew by only 0.12%.

See: http://www.ine.es/jaxiBD/tabla.do?per=01&type=db&divi=EPOB&idtab=6

wow mexico city is in all the maps

Using urban area will always favour low density sprawling cities like in North America or Australia and underestimate well defined compact cities with green belts like in Europe.

Anyway, using metro area will give you 50 over 1m in the US (plus 6 more in Canada), about 100 over 1m in Europe (85 in the EU alone) and some 234 over 1m in China.

Very well said.

Please, delete first maps, they are totally awful, seems some pupil draw them.

Helsinki has 550 000 for example etc. etc. All of them have so many mistakes even useless to mention, those maps are wrong. Delete them now!

Please, delete first maps, they are totally awful, seems some pupil draw them.

Helsinki has 550 000 for example etc. etc. All of them have so many mistakes even useless to mention, those maps are wrong. Delete them now!
I agree that the maps are awful but Helsinki actually has 1.3 million in its metro area, which is the only usefull measure to have a somewhat fair comparison to other cities.

You've got to update your map for Madrid and Barcelona. They are now not growing as fast as on your map. In 2009 the province of Madrid grew by only 0.65%. The province of Barcelona grew by only 0.12%.

See: http://www.ine.es/jaxiBD/tabla.do?per=01&type=db&divi=EPOB&idtab=6

I used the average growth rate from the last census, spain had one at the beginning of the 2000s.

What the hell?

Portland, OR can't be a '1 million' city!

That would mean at least 1/3 of the whole state lives there.

Same with Helsinki which is about 600.000 , but no Riga which is 750.000 :))