Urban area

Greater Tokyo Area, Japan, the world's most urban area, with about 38 million inhabitants

An urban area is a human settlement with high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbanism, the term contrasts to rural areas such as villages and hamlets and in urban sociology or urban anthropology it contrasts with natural environment. The creation of early predecessors of urban areas during the urban revolution led to the creation of human civilization with modern urban planning, which along with other human activities such as exploitation of natural resources leads to human impact on the environment.

The world's urban population in 1950 of just 746 million has increased to 3.9 billion in the decades since.[1] In 2009, the number of people living in urban areas (3.42 billion) surpassed the number living in rural areas (3.41 billion) and since then the world has become more urban than rural.[2] This was the first time that the majority of the world's population lived in a city.[3] In 2014 there were 7.25 billion people living on the planet,[4] of which the global urban population comprised 3.9 billion. The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs at that time predicted the urban population would grow to 6.4 billion by 2050, with 37% of that growth to come from three countries: China, India and Nigeria.[1]

Urban areas are created and further developed by the process of urbanization. Urban areas are measured for various purposes, including analyzing population density and urban sprawl.

Unlike an urban area, a metropolitan area includes not only the urban area, but also satellite cities plus intervening rural land that is socio-economically connected to the urban core city, typically by employment ties through commuting, with the urban core city being the primary labor market.

Definitions

European countries define urbanized areas on the basis of urban-type land use, not allowing any gaps of typically more than 200 metres (220 yd), and use satellite imagery instead of census blocks to determine the boundaries of the urban area. In less-developed countries, in addition to land use and density requirements, a requirement that a large majority of the population, typically 75%, is not engaged in agriculture and/or fishing is sometimes used.

Argentina

Argentina is highly urbanized.[5] The ten largest metropolitan areas account for half of the population, and fewer than one in ten live in rural areas. About 3 million people live in Buenos Aires City and the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area totals around 13 million, making it one of the largest urban areas in the world.[6]

The metropolitan areas of Córdoba, Rosario, Mendoza and Tucumán have around 1.3 million inhabitants each[6] and La Plata, Mar del Plata, Salta and Santa Fe[6][7] have at least half a million people each.

The population is unequally distributed amongst the provinces: about 60% live in the Pampa region (21% of the total area), including 15 million people in Buenos Aires Province; Córdoba Province Santa Fe Province and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires have 3 million each. Seven other provinces have over one million people each: Mendoza, Tucumán, Entre Ríos, Salta, Chaco, Corrientes and Misiones. Tucumán is the most densely populated with 60 per square kilometre (160/sq mi), the only Argentine province more densely populated than the world average, while the southern province of Santa Cruz has around 1 inhabitant per square kilometre (2.6/sq mi).

 
Largest cities or towns in Argentina
(2015 INDEC metro area estimate)[8]
Rank Name Province Pop. Rank Name Province Pop.

Buenos Aires

Córdoba		 1 Buenos Aires (Autonomous city) 13,834,000 11 Resistencia Chaco 409,000
Rosario

Mendoza
2 Córdoba Córdoba 1,519,000 12 Santiago del Estero Santiago del Estero 406,000
3 Rosario Santa Fe 1,429,000 13 Corrientes Corrientes 383,000
4 Mendoza Mendoza 1,082,000 14 Posadas Misiones 355,000
5 Tucumán Tucumán 868,000 15 San Salvador de Jujuy Jujuy 338,000
6 La Plata Buenos Aires 836,000 16 Neuquén Neuquén 309,000
7 Mar del Plata Buenos Aires 633,000 17 Bahía Blanca Buenos Aires 307,000
8 Salta Salta 625,000 18 Paraná Entre Ríos 274,000
9 Santa Fe Santa Fe 530,000 19 Formosa Formosa 258,000
10 San Juan San Juan 513,000 20 San Luis San Luis 218,000

Australia

In Australia, urban areas are referred to as "urban centres" and are defined as population clusters of 1,000 or more people, with a density of at least 200/km2 (518/sq mi)[9] Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world, with more than 50% of the population residing in the 5 biggest cities.

 
Largest populated areas in Australia
2016 data from Australian Bureau of Statistics[10]
Rank Name State Pop. Rank Name State Pop.

Sydney

Melbourne		 1 Sydney NSW 5,029,768 11 Hobart TAS 224,462
Brisbane

Perth
2 Melbourne VIC 4,725,316 12 Geelong VIC 192,393
3 Brisbane QLD 2,360,241 13 Townsville QLD 178,864
4 Perth WA 2,022,044 14 Cairns QLD 150,041
5 Adelaide SA 1,324,279 15 Darwin NT 145,916
6 Gold Coast–Tweed Heads QLD/NSW 646,983 16 Toowoomba QLD 114,024
7 Newcastle–Maitland NSW 436,171 17 Ballarat VIC 101,588
8 Canberra–Queanbeyan ACT/NSW 435,019 18 Bendigo VIC 95,587
9 Sunshine Coast QLD 317,404 19 Albury–Wodonga NSW/VIC 90,576
10 Wollongong NSW 295,669 20 Launceston TAS 86,335

Brazil

According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) urban areas already concentrate 84.35% of the population, while the Southeast region remains the most populated one, with over 80 million inhabitants.[11] The largest metropolitan areas in Brazil are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte — all in the Southeastern Region — with 20, 12, and 5 million inhabitants respectively.[12] The majority of state capitals are the largest cities in their states, except for Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, and Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina. There are also non-capital metropolitan areas in the states of São Paulo (Campinas, Santos and the Paraíba Valley), Minas Gerais (Steel Valley), Rio Grande do Sul (Sinos Valley) and Santa Catarina (Itajaí Valley).[13]

São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, the largest city proper in the Southern Hemisphere, in the Americas, and the world's ninth-largest urban area by population.[14]
 
Rank Name State Pop. Rank Name State Pop.

São Paulo

Rio de Janeiro		 1 São Paulo São Paulo 21,242,939 11 Manaus Amazonas 2,568,817
Belo Horizonte

Brasília
2 Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro 12,330,186 12 Vale do Paraíba e Litoral Norte São Paulo 2,475,879
3 Belo Horizonte Minas Gerais 5,873,841 13 Goiânia Goiás 2,458,504
4 Brasília Distrito Federal 4,284,676 14 Belém Pará 2,422,481
5 Porto Alegre Rio Grande do Sul 4,276,475 15 Vitória Espírito Santo 1,935,483
6 Fortaleza Ceará 4,019,213 16 Sorocaba São Paulo 1,908,425
7 Salvador Bahia 3,984,583 17 Baixada Santista São Paulo 1,813,033
8 Recife Pernambuco 3,940,456 18 São Luís Maranhão 1,605,305
9 Curitiba Paraná 3,537,894 19 Natal Rio Grande do Norte 1,537,211
10 Campinas São Paulo 3,131,528 20 Piracicaba São Paulo 1,452,691

Canada

According to Statistics Canada, an urban area in Canada is an area with a population of at least 1,000 people where the density is no fewer than 400 persons per square kilometre (1,000/sq mi).[16] If two or more urban areas are within 2 km (1.2 mi) of each other by road, they are merged into a single urban area, provided they do not cross census metropolitan area or census agglomeration boundaries.[17]

In the Canada 2011 Census, Statistics Canada redesignated urban areas with the new term "population centre";[18] the new term was chosen in order to better reflect the fact that urban vs. rural is not a strict division, but rather a continuum within which several distinct settlement patterns may exist. For example, a community may fit a strictly statistical definition of an urban area, but may not be commonly thought of as "urban" because it has a smaller population, or functions socially and economically as a suburb of another urban area rather than as a self-contained urban entity, or is geographically remote from other urban communities. Accordingly, the new definition set out three distinct types of population centres: small (population 1,000 to 29,999), medium (population 30,000 to 99,999) and large (population 100,000 or greater).[18] Despite the change in terminology, however, the demographic definition of a population centre remains unchanged from that of an urban area: a population of at least 1,000 people where the density is no fewer than 400 persons per km2.

Colombia

In Colombia the largest Metropolitan area is Bogotá's, which has around 9.8 million of inhabitants and includes municipalities like Cota, La Calera, Chía, Soacha, Usaquen, Suba among others.., it's the metropolis of Culture, Business and Literature, Bogotá has been the International City of the Book and has places uniques like Monserrate, Torre Colpatria, Bolivar Square, BD Bacatá, Corferias, National University etc.[19][20]

China

Since 2000, China's cities have expanded at an average rate of 10% annually. It is estimated that China's urban population will increase by 292 million people by 2050,[1] when its cities will house a combined population of over one billion.[21] The country's urbanization rate increased from 17.4% to 46.6% between 1978 and 2009, a scale unprecedented in human history.[22] Between 150 and 200 million migrant workers work part-time in the major cities, returning home to the countryside periodically with their earnings.[23][24]

Today, China has dozens of cities with one million or more long-term residents, including the three global cities of Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai; by 2025, the country will be home to 221 cities with over a million inhabitants.[21] The figures in the table below are from the 2008 census, and are only estimates of the urban populations within administrative city limits; a different ranking exists when considering the total municipal populations (which includes suburban and rural populations). The large "floating populations" of migrant workers make conducting censuses in urban areas difficult;[25] the figures below include only long-term residents.

Panoramic view of Pudong's Skyline from the Bund in Shanghai, the largest city proper by population in the world.[26]
 
Rank Name Province Pop. Rank Name Province Pop.

Shanghai

Beijing		 1 Shanghai Shanghai 20,217,700 11 Chengdu Sichuan 6,316,900
Chongqing

Guangzhou
2 Beijing Beijing 16,446,900 12 Nanjing Jiangsu 6,238,200
3 Chongqing Chongqing 11,871,200 13 Shenyang Liaoning 5,718,200
4 Guangzhou Guangdong 10,641,400 14 Hangzhou Zhejiang 5,578,300
5 Shenzhen Guangdong 10,358,400 15 Xi'an Shaanxi 5,399,300
6 Tianjin Tianjin 9,562,300 16 Harbin Heilongjiang 5,178,000
7 Wuhan Hubei 7,541,500 17 Suzhou Jiangsu 4,083,900
8 Dongguan Guangdong 7,271,300 18 Qingdao Shandong 3,990,900
9 Hong Kong Hong Kong 7,055,071 19 Dalian Liaoning 3,902,500
10 Foshan Guangdong 6,771,900 20 Zhengzhou Henan 3,677,000

Finland

Similar to other Nordic countries, an urban area (taajama in Finnish) in Finland must have a building at least every 200 m (660 ft) and at least 200 people. To be considered a town or a city (kaupunki) for statistical purposes, an urban area must have at least 15,000 people. This is not to be confused with the city / town designation used by municipalities.[27][28]

France

The Galeries Lafayette Department store in central Paris
Lyon, second urban area population in France

In France, an urban area (Fr: aire urbaine) is a zone encompassing an area of built-up growth (called an "urban unit" (unité urbaine)[29] - close in definition to the North American urban area) and its commuter belt (couronne périurbaine). Americans would find the INSEE definition of the urban area[30] to be similar to their metropolitan area, and the INSEE sometimes uses the term aire métropolitaine[31] to refer to the country's largest aires urbaines.

The largest cities in France, in terms of urban area population (2013), are Paris (12,405,426), Lyon (2,237,676), Marseille (1,734,277), Toulouse (1,291,517), Bordeaux (1,178,335), Lille (1,175,828), Nice (1,004,826), Nantes (908,815), Strasbourg (773,447) and Rennes (700,675).[32]

Panorama of Paris as seen from the Eiffel Tower as full 360-degree view (river flowing from north-east to south-west, right to left)

Germany

Germany has a number of large cities. There are 11 officially recognised metropolitan regions in Germany – and since 2006, 34 potential cities were identified which can be called a Regiopolis.

The largest conurbation is the Rhine-Ruhr region (11.7 million in 2008), including Düsseldorf (the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia), Cologne, Bonn, Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, and Bochum.[33]

 
Rank Name State Pop. Rank Name State Pop.

Berlin

Hamburg		 1 Berlin Berlin 3,710,156 11 Bremen Bremen (state) 557,464
Munich

Cologne
2 Hamburg Hamburg 1,787,408 12 Dresden Saxony 543,825
3 Munich Bavaria 1,450,381 13 Hannover Lower Saxony 532,163
4 Cologne North Rhine-Westphalia 1,060,582 14 Nuremberg Bavaria 509,975
5 Frankfurt Hesse 732,688 15 Duisburg North Rhine-Westphalia 491,231
6 Stuttgart Baden-Württemberg 623,738 16 Bochum North Rhine-Westphalia 364,742
7 Düsseldorf North Rhine-Westphalia 612,178 17 Wuppertal North Rhine-Westphalia 350,046
8 Dortmund North Rhine-Westphalia 586,181 18 Bielefeld North Rhine-Westphalia 333,090
9 Essen North Rhine-Westphalia 582,624 19 Bonn North Rhine-Westphalia 318,809
10 Leipzig Saxony 560,472 20 Münster North Rhine-Westphalia 310,039

India

Kolkata, India

For the Census of India 2011, the definition of urban area is as follows:

  1. All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee, etc.
  2. All other places which satisfied the following criteria:
  1. A minimum population of 5,000;
  2. At least 75% of the male main working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits; and
  3. A density of population of at least 400 persons per square kilometre (1,000/sq mi)
Panoramic view of Delhi, the capital of India

Source: A PDF file named '1. Data Highlight' accessed on 11 April 2012 from Census of India, 2011[34] The figure below is the population statistic for the year 2011. This is a list of city population and it does not indicate urban agglomeration population.

 
Largest cities or towns in India
Census India[35]
Rank Name State/UT Pop. Rank Name State/UT Pop.

Mumbai

Delhi		 1 Mumbai Maharashtra 12,478,447 11 Lucknow Uttar Pradesh 2,815,601
Chennai

Hyderabad
2 Delhi Delhi 11,007,835 12 Kanpur Uttar Pradesh 2,767,031
3 Chennai Tamil Nadu 8,425,970 13 Nagpur Maharashtra 2,405,421
4 Hyderabad Telangana 6,809,970 14 Indore Madhya Pradesh 1,960 521
5 Bangalore Karnataka 5,570,585 15 Thane Maharashtra 1,818,872
6 Ahmedabad Gujarat 4,681,087 16 Bhopal Madhya Pradesh 1,795,648
7 Kolkata West Bengal 4,486,679 17 Visakhapatnam Andhra Pradesh 1,730,320
8 Surat Gujarat 4,462,002 18 Pimpri-Chinchwad Maharashtra 1,729,359
9 Pune Maharashtra 3,115,431 19 Patna Bihar 1,683,200
10 Jaipur Rajasthan 3,073,350 20 Ludhiana Punjab 1,613,878

Japan

In Japan urbanized areas are defined as contiguous areas of densely inhabited districts (DIDs) using census enumeration districts as units with a density requirement of 4,000 inhabitants per square kilometre (10,000/sq mi).

Panoramic view of Shinjuku and Mount Fuji taken from Bunkyo Civic Center in Tokyo, the most populous urban area in the world.[36]
 
Largest cities or towns in Japan
2010 Census
Rank Name Prefecture Pop. Rank Name Prefecture Pop.

Special wards of Tokyo

Yokohama		 1 Special wards of Tokyo Tokyo 8,949,447 11 Hiroshima Hiroshima 1,174,209
Osaka

Nagoya
2 Yokohama Kanagawa 3,689,603 12 Sendai Miyagi 1,045,903
3 Osaka Osaka 2,666,371 13 Kitakyushu Fukuoka 977,288
4 Nagoya Aichi 2,263,907 14 Chiba Chiba 962,130
5 Sapporo Hokkaido 1,914,434 15 Sakai Osaka 842,134
6 Kobe Hyōgo 1,544,873 16 Niigata Niigata 812,192
7 Kyoto Kyoto 1,474,473 17 Hamamatsu Shizuoka 800,912
8 Fukuoka Fukuoka 1,463,826 18 Kumamoto Kumamoto 734,294
9 Kawasaki Kanagawa 1,425,678 19 Sagamihara Kanagawa 717,561
10 Saitama Saitama 1,222,910 20 Shizuoka Shizuoka 716,328

The Netherlands

The Netherlands is the 30th most densely populated country in the world, with 404.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,048/sq mi)—or 497 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,287/sq mi) if only the land area is counted. The Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam in the province North Holland, Rotterdam and The Hague in the province South Holland, and Utrecht in the province Utrecht. The Randstad has a population of 7 million inhabitants and is the 6th largest metropolitan area in Europe.

 
Largest cities or towns in Netherlands
Statistics Netherlands[37]
Rank Province Pop. Rank Province Pop.

Amsterdam

Rotterdam		 1 Amsterdam North Holland 848.861 11 Apeldoorn Gelderland 160.059
The Hague

Utrecht
2 Rotterdam South Holland 638.221 12 Haarlem North Holland 159.234
3 The Hague South Holland 524.305 13 Enschede Overijssel 158.142
4 Utrecht Utrecht 343.086 14 Arnhem Gelderland 155.721
5 Eindhoven North Brabant 226.879 15 Amersfoort Utrecht 154.338
6 Tilburg North Brabant 213.840 16 Zaanstad North Holland 153.750
7 Groningen Groningen 201.535 17 's-Hertogenbosch North Brabant 152.472
8 Almere Flevoland 200.954 18 Haarlemmermeer North Holland 145.989
9 Breda North Brabant 182.777 19 Zwolle Overijssel 125.525
10 Nijmegen Gelderland 173.592 20 Zoetermeer South Holland 124.745

New Zealand

Statistics New Zealand defines urban areas in New Zealand, which are independent of any administrative subdivisions and have no legal basis.[38] There are three classes of urban area: main urban areas are the 17 urban areas which have a population of 30,000 or more; secondary urban areas are the 14 urban areas which have a population of 10,000 or more but less than 30,000, and minor urban areas are the 103 urban areas which have a population of 1,000 or more but less than 10,000. Urban areas are reclassified after each Census, so population changes between censuses does not change an urban area's classification. For example, Rolleston (pop. 13,100) is still classified as a minor urban area because its population was under 10,000 at the 2013 Census.

 
Largest urban areas in New Zealand
Statistics New Zealand June 2016 estimate[39]
Rank Name Region Pop. Rank Name Region Pop.

Auckland

Wellington		 1 Auckland Auckland 1,495,000 11 New Plymouth Taranaki 56,800
Christchurch

Hamilton
2 Wellington Wellington 405,000 12 Whangarei Northland 56,400
3 Christchurch Canterbury 389,700 13 Invercargill Southland 50,700
4 Hamilton Waikato 230,000 14 Kapiti Wellington 41,800
5 Tauranga Bay of Plenty 134,400 15 Whanganui Manawatu-Wanganui 39,600
6 Napier-Hastings Hawke's Bay 131,000 16 Gisborne Gisborne 36,100
7 Dunedin Otago 118,500 17 Blenheim Marlborough 30,700
8 Palmerston North Manawatu-Wanganui 84,300 18 Pukekohe Auckland 29,800
9 Nelson Nelson 65,700 19 Timaru Canterbury 28,800
10 Rotorua Bay of Plenty 57,800 20 Taupo Waikato 24,100

Norway

Statistics Norway defines urban areas ("tettsteder") similarly to the other Nordic countries. Unlike in Denmark and Sweden, the distance between each building has to be of less than 50 m, although exceptions are made due to parks, industrial areas, rivers, and similar. Groups of houses less than 400 m from the main body of an urban area are included in the urban area.[40]

Philippines

With an estimated population of 16.3 million, Metro Manila is the most populous metropolitan area in the Philippines and the 11th in the world. However, the greater urban area is the 5th largest in the world with a population of 20,654,307 people (2010 estimate).[41] Including Metro Manila, the Philippines has twelve metropolitan areas as defined by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). Metro Angeles, Metro Bacolod, Metro Baguio, Metro Batangas, Metro Cagayan de Oro, Metro Cebu, Metro Dagupan, Metro Davao, Metro Iloilo-Guimaras, Metro Naga, Metro Olongapo.

As per Republic Act No. 9009, in order to become a city, a local government unit must :

Poland

In Poland, official "urban" population figures simply refer to those localities which have the status of towns (miasta). The "rural" population is that of all areas outside the boundaries of these towns. This distinction may give a misleading impression in some cases, since some localities with only village status may have acquired larger and denser populations than many smaller towns.[42]

 
Rank Name Voivodeship Pop. Rank Name Voivodeship Pop.

Warsaw

Kraków		 1 Warsaw Masovian 1,748,916 11 Białystok Podlaskie 296,310
Łódź

Wrocław
2 Kraków Lesser Poland 762,448 12 Gdynia Pomeranian 247,329
3 Łódź Łódź 698,688 13 Częstochowa Silesian 227,270
4 Wrocław Lower Silesian 637,075 14 Radom Masovian 215,653
5 Poznań Greater Poland 541,561 15 Sosnowiec Silesian 206,516
6 Gdańsk Pomeranian 462,996 16 Toruń Kuyavian-Pomeranian 202,591
7 Szczecin West Pomeranian 405,413 17 Kielce Świętokrzyskie 197,724
8 Bydgoszcz Kuyavian-Pomeranian 354,990 18 Rzeszów Subcarpathian 187,027
9 Lublin Lublin 340,745 19 Gliwice Silesian 182,969
10 Katowice Silesian 299,012 20 Zabrze Silesian 175,882

Russia

In Russia, only the population residing in cities/towns and urban-type settlements is considered to be "urban". The city/town/urban-settlement designation usually means that the majority of the population is employed in areas other than agriculture, but the exact definitions vary from one federal subject to another.

Singapore

Singapore is an island city-state in Southeast Asia. About 5.2 million people live and work within 700 square kilometres (270 sq mi), making Singapore the 3rd-most-densely populated country in the world, after Monaco, another city-state. The Central Area in the south-eastern part of the island, is the country's city centre. It is surrounded by suburban settlements outside of its limits. These settlements are connected to the Central Area and each other by a dense network of roads, expressways and metro railway lines dubbed MRT by locals. Singapore has a highly centralised, unitary government with a unicameral legislature (the City Council and the Rural Board were abolished in the 1960s). While there are town councils and mayors in Singapore, these are essentially property managers in charge of the maintenance of public housing within their constituency boundaries. They do not represent local authorities with any legislative or executive autonomy from the national government.[43]

 
Rank Name Region Pop. Rank Name Region Pop.

Bedok

Jurong West		 1 Bedok East 289,750 11 Pasir Ris East 139,890
Tampines

Woodlands
2 Jurong West West 272,660 12 Bukit Batok West 139,270
3 Tampines East 261,230 13 Bukit Panjang West 139,030
4 Woodlands North 250,290 14 Toa Payoh Central 124,940
5 Hougang North-East 222,310 15 Serangoon North-East 120,670
6 Sengkang North-East 206,680 16 Geylang Central 116,960
7 Yishun North 201,970 17 Punggol North-East 109,750
8 Ang Mo Kio North-East 174,770 18 Kallang Central 101,210
9 Choa Chu Kang West 174,330 19 Queenstown Central 98,050
10 Bukit Merah Central 155,840 20 Clementi West 91,630

South Africa

 
Largest cities or towns in South Africa
2011 Census
Rank Name Province Pop.
1 City of Johannesburg Gauteng 4,434,827[44]
2 City of Cape Town Western Cape 3,740,026[45]
3 EThekwini Metropolitan Municipality KwaZulu-Natal 3,442,361[46]
4 Ekurhuleni Gauteng 3,178,470[47]
5 City of Tshwane Gauteng 2,921,488[48]
6 Nelson Mandela Bay Eastern Cape 1,152,115[49]
7 Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality Eastern Cape 755,200[50]
8 Mangaung Free State 747,431[51]
9 Emfuleni Gauteng 721,663[52]
10 Polokwane Local Municipality Limpopo 628,999 [53]

South Korea

The largest cities of South Korea have an autonomous status equivalent to that of provinces. Seoul, the largest city and capital, is classified as a teukbyeolsi (Special City), while the next 6 largest cities (see the list below) are classified as gwangyeoksi (Metropolitan Cities; see Special cities of South Korea). Smaller cities are classified as si ("cities") and are under provincial jurisdiction, at the same level as counties (see:Administrative divisions of South Korea).

 
Rank Name Province Pop. Rank Name Province Pop.
1 Seoul Seoul 9,904,312 11 Yongin Gyeonggi 971,327
2 Busan Busan 3,448,737 12 Seongnam Gyeonggi 948,757
3 Incheon Incheon 2,890,451 13 Bucheon Gyeonggi 843,794
4 Daegu Daegu 2,446,052 14 Cheongju North Chungcheong 833,276
5 Daejeon Daejeon 1,538,394 15 Ansan Gyeonggi 747,035
6 Gwangju Gwangju 1,502,881 16 Jeonju North Jeolla 658,172
7 Suwon Gyeonggi 1,194,313 17 Cheonan South Chungcheong 629,062
8 Ulsan Ulsan 1,166,615 18 Namyangju Gyeonggi 629,061
9 Changwon South Gyeongsang 1,059,241 19 Hwaseong Gyeonggi 608,725
10 Goyang Gyeonggi 990,073 20 Anyang Gyeonggi 585,177

Sweden

Urban areas in Sweden (tätorter) are statistically defined localities, totally independent of the administrative subdivision of the country. There are 1,956 such localities in Sweden, with a population ranging from 200 to 1,372,000 inhabitants.[55]

Taiwan

The figures below are the 2011 estimates for the twenty largest urban populations within administrative city limits; a different ranking exists when considering the total metropolitan area populations (in such rankings the Taipei-Keelung metro area is by far the largest agglomeration).

 
Largest cities or towns in Taiwan
source
Rank Name Division Pop.

New Taipei

Kaohsiung		 1 New Taipei New Taipei City 3,913,595
Taichung

Taipei
2 Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City 2,773,855
3 Taichung Taichung City 2,662,770
4 Taipei Taipei City 2,647,122
5 Taoyuan Taoyuan City 2,056,273
6 Tainan Tainan City 1,883,844
7 Hsinchu Hsinchu City 431,601
8 Keelung Keelung City 380,281
9 Chiayi Chiayi City 271,594
10 Changhua Changhua County 235,197

United Kingdom

Apartment buildings in Kensington Gore, London

The United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics has produced census results from urban areas since 1951, since 1981 based upon the extent of irreversible urban development indicated on Ordnance Survey maps. The definition is an extent of at least 20 ha and at least 1,500 census residents. Separate areas are linked if less than 200 m (220 yd) apart. Included are transportation features.[56] The UK has five Urban Areas with a population over a million and a further sixty nine with a population over one hundred thousand.

United States

In the United States, there are two categories of urban area. The term urbanized area denotes an urban area of 50,000 or more people. Urban areas under 50,000 people are called urban clusters. Urbanized areas were first delineated in the United States in the 1950 census, while urban clusters were added in the 2000 census. There are 1,371 urban areas and urban clusters with more than 10,000 people.

The U.S. Census Bureau defines an urban area as: "Core census block groups or blocks that have a population density of at least 1,000 people per square mile (386 per square kilometer) and surrounding census blocks that have an overall density of at least 500 people per square mile (193 per square kilometer)." [57]

The largest urban area in the United States is the New York metropolitan area. The population of New York City, the core of the metropolitan area, exceeds 8.5 million people, its metropolitan statistical area has a population that is over 20 million, and its combined statistical area population is over 23 million. The next six largest urban areas in the U.S. are Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Houston.[58] About 82 percent of the population of the United States lives within the boundaries of an urbanized area as of December, 2010.[59] Combined, these areas occupy about 2 percent of the United States. Many Americans live in agglomerations of cities, suburbs, and towns that are adjacent to a metropolitan area's largest city.

The skyscrapers of New York City, the most populous city in the United States and the most populous U.S. metropolitan area, are almost all situated in Manhattan, seen here in this panorama viewed from Weehawken, New Jersey, in January 2015. Prominent tall buildings include One57 and 432 Park Avenue, left of center; the Empire State Building, right of center; and on the far right of the picture, One World Trade Center. Near the last mentioned, Four World Trade Center, 70 Pine Street, the Woolworth Building, and 40 Wall Street can be seen. At the center of the skyline picture, the Chrysler Building, The New York Times Building, and the Conde Nast Building can be picked out of the crowd by their spires.

The concept of Urbanized Areas as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau is often used as a more accurate gauge of the size of a city, since in different cities and states the lines between city borders and the urbanized area of that city are often not the same. For example, the city of Greenville, South Carolina has a city population just over 64,000 and an urbanized area population of over 400,000, while Greensboro, North Carolina has a city population just over 285,000 and an urbanized area population of around 310,000 — meaning that Greenville is actually "larger" for some intents and purposes, but not for others, such as taxation, local elections, etc.

In the U.S. Department of Agriculture's natural resources inventory, urban areas are officially known as developed areas or urban and built-up areas. Such areas include cities, ethnic villages, other built-up areas of more than 10 ac (4 ha), industrial sites, railroad yards, cemeteries, airports, golf courses, shooting ranges, institutional and public administration sites, and similar areas. The 1997 national resources inventory placed over 98,000,000 ac (40,000,000 ha) in this category, an increase of 25,000,000 ac (10,000,000 ha) since 1982.[60]

Vietnam

In Vietnam, there are 6 types of urban areas:

 
Largest cities or towns in Vietnam
2015 estimate
Rank Name Province Pop.

Hồ Chí Minh City

Hà Nội		 1 Hồ Chí Minh City Municipalities of Vietnam 8,244,400
Hải Phòng

Cần Thơ
2 Hà Nội Municipalities of Vietnam 7,379,300
3 Hải Phòng Municipalities of Vietnam 1,946,000
4 Cần Thơ Municipalities of Vietnam 1,238,300
5 Biên Hòa Đồng Nai 1,104,495
6 Đà Nẵng Municipalities of Vietnam 1,007,700
7 Nha Trang Khánh Hòa 393,218
8 Buôn Ma Thuột Đắk Lắk 350,000
9 Huế Thừa Thiên-Huế 337,554
10 Vinh Nghệ An 330,000

See also

Lists

References

  1. 1 2 3 "City population to reach 6.4bn by 2050". Herald Globe. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  2. ↑ "United Nations Population Division - Department of Economic and Social Affairs".
  3. ↑ "Urban population growth". World Health Organization.
  4. ↑ "Current world population". United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "Field listing – Urbanization". The World Factbook. CIA.
  6. 1 2 3 "Major Cities". Government of Argentina. Archived from the original on 19 September 2009.
  7. ↑ "Ubicación de la ciudad de salta" (in Spanish). Directorate-General of Tourism, Municipality of the City of Salta. Archived from the original on 2010-01-17.
  8. ↑ "Encuesta Permanente de Hogares" (PDF). Indec. 23 August 2015. p. 3.
  9. ↑ "1216.0 - Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC), 2001". Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 2007-10-09.
  10. ↑ "3218.0 - Regional Population Growth, Australia, 2016". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 28 July 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
  11. ↑ "IDBGE" (in Portuguese). IBGE. 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
  12. ↑ 2008 PNAD, IBGE. "População residente por situação, sexo e grupos de idade."
  13. ↑ "Principal Cities". Encarta. MSN. Archived from the original on 31 October 2009. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  14. ↑ "RMSP supera 20 milhões de habitantes, calcula Seade – economia – geral – Estadão". Estadao.com.br. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
  15. ↑ "IBGE releases population estimates for municipalities in 2016". IBGE. 2016-08-30. Retrieved 2016-08-31.
  16. ↑ "Urban area (UA)". Statistics Canada. 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2011-01-21.
  17. ↑ "More information on Urban area (UA)". Statistics Canada. 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2011-01-21.
  18. 1 2 "From urban areas to population centres". Statistics Canada, May 5, 2011.
  19. ↑ Duncan Smith. "World City Populations 1950 - 2030". Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  20. ↑ "Bright lights, big cities. Urbanisation and the rise of the megacity". economist.com. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  21. 1 2 "Preparing for China's urban billion". McKinsey Global Institute. February 2009. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
  22. ↑ "China urbanization (PDF)" (PDF). World Bank Institute. 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
  23. ↑ Harney, Alexandra (3 February 2008). "Migrants are China's 'factories without smoke'". CNN. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
  24. ↑ Tschang, Chi-Chu (4 February 2009). "A Tough New Year for China's Migrant Workers". Business Week. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
  25. ↑ Francesco Sisci. "China's floating population a headache for census". The Straits Times. 22 September 2000.
  26. ↑ "Cities: largest (without surrounding suburban areas)". Geohive. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
  27. ↑ "Locality - Concepts". Statistics Finland.
  28. ↑ "Alueluokkien kuvaukset". Ymparisto.
  29. ↑ "Nomenclatures Définitions — Méthodes — Unité urbaine" (in French). Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  30. ↑ "Nomenclatures Définitions — Méthodes — Aire urbaine" (in French). Retrieved 2007-07-07.
  31. ↑ "Un maillage du territoire français" (in French). Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  32. ↑ "Résultats de la recherche - Insee".
  33. ↑ "Regionales Monitoring 2010 - Daten und Karten zu den Europäischen Metropolregionen in Deutschland" (PDF) (in German). Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung. 2010. p. 10. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  34. ↑ http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/paper2-vol2/data_files/India2/1.%20Data%20Highlight.pdf
  35. ↑ Cities having population 1 lakh and above, Census 2011
  36. ↑ "The world's biggest cities: How do you measure them?". BBC News. 29 January 2012.
  37. ↑ Statistics Netherlands.
  38. ↑ "Urban area: Definition". Statistics New Zealand. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  39. ↑ "Subnational Population Estimates: At 30 June 2016 (provisional)". Statistics New Zealand. 21 October 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2016. For urban areas, "Subnational population estimates (UA, AU), by age and sex, at 30 June 1996, 2001, 2006-16 (2017 boundary)". Statistics New Zealand. 21 October 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  40. ↑ "Population statistics. Population and land area in urban settlements, 1 January 2008". Statistics Norway. June 20, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-17.
  41. ↑ "World: metropolitan areas". World Gazetteer. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
  42. ↑ Polish official population figures
  43. ↑ "What are the functions and duties of a town council?". Singapore Legal Advice. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
  44. ↑ http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=3839
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  46. ↑ http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=3839
  47. ↑ http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=3839
  48. ↑ http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=3839
  49. ↑ http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=3839
  50. ↑ http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=3839
  51. ↑ http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=3839
  52. ↑ http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=3839
  53. ↑ http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=3839
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  55. ↑ "Fortsatt stor ökning av befolkning i tätorter". Statistics Sweden. Retrieved 2011-06-24.
  56. ↑ KS01 Usual resident population: Census 2001, Key Statistics for urban areas
    For the OS definition of an Urban Area, see the notes tab on the Excel version.
  57. ↑ "The Urban and Rural Classifications" (PDF). Geographic Areas Reference Manual. United States Census Bureau.
  58. ↑ United States Census Bureau 2010 Census Urban Area List http://www2.census.gov/geo/ua/ua_list_ua.xls 2010 Census Urban Area List. Retrieved May 7, 2013.
  59. ↑ - accessed January, 2012
  60. ↑  This article incorporates public domain material from the Congressional Research Service document [http://ncseonline.org/nle/crsreports/05jun /97-905.pdf "Report for Congress: Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition"] by Jasper Womach.
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