Jakarta named the world’s most populous city in UN ranking

Photo: Shutterstock, photo editor: Dastan Shanay

According to the UN’s «World Urbanisation Prospects 2025» report, Jakarta is now the world’s most populous city. It has overtaken Tokyo because of a new way of measuring city populations, according to The Guardian.

Jakarta’s population is now estimated at 42 million, putting it ahead of Dhaka, which has 37 million people. Tokyo, which the study defines as a metropolitan area including three nearby prefectures, is now third with 33 million residents. In the UN’s 2018 report, Tokyo was listed as the largest city with 37 million people.

UN officials explained that the change stems from using more consistent and effective ways to define urban areas. Earlier rankings used national definitions that were often very different. Patrick Gerland from the UN’s population division said the new method makes it easier to compare cities internationally by using standard population and geographic data.

Cities around the world have grown much faster over the last hundred years. In 1950, just 20% of the world’s 2.5 billion people lived in cities. Today, almost half of the global population of 8.2 billion lives in urban areas. By 2050, about two-thirds of new population growth is expected to occur in cities, with the rest in towns.

Moreover, the number of megacities — urban areas with more than 10 million inhabitants — has increased from eight in 1975 to 33 in 2025. Nine of the world’s 10 largest cities by population are now located in Asia, including Jakarta, Dhaka, Tokyo, New Delhi, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Cairo, Manila, Kolkata and Seoul.