True or false?: the CEO of United Technologies said on CNBC this AM that Chungking (Chongqing ) is now the world's largest city at 40 million.
it was ranked 61st on a 2003 list. Depends if its city limits or meteropolitan area.... still chuckling at my avatar.....
40 Million!! Wow!! My father had strong memories of Chungking during the war, including hiding in a drainage ditch every day at noon, which was when the Japanese would fly over it and bomb it to bits. 40 Million! Its inconceivable. Id hate to try and carry the phone directory up some stairs.
just in case....top 30- Rank Area Country Category Population 1 New York (NY) USA Urban area 21,199,000 2 MEXICO CITY Mexico Urban area 20,267,000 3 Los Angeles (CA) USA Urban area 16,373,000 4 Mumbai (Bombay) India Urban area 16,368,000 5 Kolkata (Calcutta) India Urban area 13,217,000 6 Delhi India Urban area 12,791,000 7 TOKYO Japan Urban area 12,059,000 8 BUENOS AIRES Argentina Urban area 11,298,000 9 SEOUL South Korea City 10,231,000 10 Sao Paulo Brazil City 10,009,000 11 JAKARTA Indonesia City 9,373,000 12 Karachi Pakistan City 9,339,000 13 PARIS France Urban area 9,319,000 14 Chicago (IL) USA Urban area 9,158,000 15 MOSKVA Russia Urban area 8,538,000 16 Istanbul Turkey Urban area 8,506,000 17 Shanghai China City 8,214,000 18 WASHINGTON (DC) USA Urban area 7,608,000 19 BANGKOK Thailand City 7,507,000 20 BEIJING China City 7,362,000 21 LONDON UK City 7,074,000 22 San Francisco (CA) USA Urban area 7,039,000 23 Hong Kong China City 6,843,000 24 CAIRO Egypt City 6,800,000 25 TEHRAN Iran City 6,758,000 26 Chennai India Urban area 6,425,000 27 BOGOTA Colombia City 6,422,000 28 Bandung Indonesia City 5,919,000 29 Tianjin China City 5,855,000 30 Boston (MA) USA Urban area 5,819,000
40 MILLION PEOPLE ???? WHERE?? The world's largest cities Cities ranked 1 to 100 Capital letters denote country capital cities. This table provides population figures for cities with legally defined boundaries, with recognised urban status and with its own local government. The figures do not take into account suburban settlements or other heavily populated areas outside city boundaries. Greater urban areas are described and ranked on separate pages. Introduction | Cities ranked 1 to 100 | Cities ranked 101 to 200 | Cities ranked 201 to 300 | World's largest urban areas | Ranking of urban areas | Urban slums | Capital cities | Europe's 500 largest cities | Rank City Country Population 1 SEOUL South Korea 10,231,000 2 São Paulo Brazil 10,009,000 3 Bombay India 9,925,000 4 JAKARTA Indonesia 9,373,000 5 Karachi Pakistan 9,339,000 6 MOSKVA (Moscow) Russia 8,297,000 7 Istanbul Turkey 8,260,000 8 MEXICO (Mexico City) Mexico 8,235,000 9 Shanghai China 8,214,000 10 TOKYO Japan 8,130,000 11 New York (NY) USA 8,008,000 12 BANGKOK Thailand 7,506,700 13 BEIJING China 7,362,000 14 Delhi India 7,206,000 15 LONDON UK 7,074,000 16 HongKong China 6,843,000 17 CAIRO Egypt 6,800,000 18 TEHRAN Iran 6,758,000 19 BOGOTA Colombia 6,422,000 20 Bandung Indonesia 5,919,000 21 Tianjin China 5,855,000 22 LIMA Peru 5,681,000 23 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 5,613,000 24 Lahore Pakistan 5,143,000 25 Bogor Indonesia 5,000,000 26 SANTIAGO Chile 4,788,000 27 St Petersburg Russia 4,678,000 28 Shenyang China 4,669,000 29 Calcutta India 4,399,000 30 Wuhan China 4,040,000 31 Sydney Australia 4,031,000 32 Guangzhou China 3,935,000 33 SINGAPORE Singapore 3,894,000 34 Madras India 3,841,000 35 BAGHDAD Iraq 3,841,000 36 Pusan South Korea 3,814,000 37 Los Angeles (CA) USA 3,694,000 38 Yokohama Japan 3,426,000 39 DHAKA Bangladesh 3,397,000 40 BERLIN Germany 3,386,000 41 Alexandria Egypt 3,339,000 42 Bangalore India 3,302,000 43 Malang Indonesia 3,173,000 44 Hyderabad India 3,145,000 45 Chongqing China 3,127,000 46 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam 3,015,000 47 Haerbin China 2,990,000 48 ANKARA Turkey 2,984,000 49 BUENOS AIRES Argentina 2,965,000 50 Chengdu China 2,954,000 51 Ahmedabad India 2,954,000 52 Casablanca Morocco 2,943,000 53 Chicago (IL) USA 2,896,000 54 Xian China 2,872,000 55 MADRID Spain 2,823,000 56 Surabaya Indonesia 2,801,000 57 PYONGYANG NorthKorea 2,741,000 58 Nanjing China 2,678,000 59 KINSHASA Congo (Zaire) 2,664,000 60 ROMA Italy 2,648,000 61 Taipei China 2,640,000 62 Osaka Japan 2,598,000 63 KIEV Ukraine 2,589,000 64 YANGON Myanmar 2,513,000 65 Toronto Canada 2,500,000 66 Zibo China 2,484,000 67 Dalian China 2,483,000 68 Taegu South Korea 2,449,000 69 ADDIS ABABA Ethopia 2,424,000 70 Jinan China 2,403,000 71 Salvador Brazil 2,331,000 72 Inchon South Korea 2,308,000 73 Semarang Indonesia 2,221,000 74 Giza Egypt 2,221,000 75 Changchun China 2,192,000 76 Havanna Cuba 2,192,000 77 Nagoya Japan 2,171,000 78 Belo Horizonte Brazil 2,154,000 79 PARIS France 2,152,000 80 TASHKENT Uzbekistan 2,142,000 81 Fortaleza Brazil 2,139,000 82 Sukabumi Indonesia 2,137,000 83 Cali Colombia 2,128,000 84 Guayaquil Ecuador 2,117,000 85 Qingdao China 2,101,000 86 Izmir Turkey 2,081,000 87 Cirebon Indonesia 2,080,000 88 Taiyuan China 2,051,000 89 BRASILIA Brazil 2,016,000 90 BUCURESTI Romania 2,016,000 91 Faisalabad Pakistan 2,008,000 92 Quezon City Philippines 1,989,000 93 Medan Indonesia 1,988,000 94 Houston (TX) USA 1,953,000 95 Abidjan Côte dIvorie 1,929,000 96 Mashhad Iran 1,887,000 97 Medellín Colombia 1,885,000 98 Kanpur India 1,879,000 99 BUDAPEST Hungary 1,825,000 100 CARACAS Venezuela 1,823,000
Interestingly, what he was talking about was the explosive need for elevators since everyone lives in high rises. He said alot of the growth was very recent, I could not find it listed as a large city when I googled prior to posting. He also mentioned that they had 19,000 elevaors for the 40 mm people and Spain, with 40 mm also has 600,000 elevators. But maybe he was full of crap, I dunno.
According to my Geography/History book(published in 2002) Tokyo is the largest. I dont even know where the hell Chungking is!!!
If you count the metro area, Chongqing is the biggest city at 40 MM people. Been there twice in the last year. Place is huge, but thankfully, only a small portion of the population has cars, so it is possible to make it across town in under an hour. This is the city that most of the people from the three gorges area are moving to. Population explosion is an understatement. You have to also remember that the official population is based on the number of resident permits issued, there are tons of migrant laborers in the city. Shanghai's real population is ~20MM right now...
There has to be a better definition. Depending on how you count, a city could be 300K, 3M, or 20M. Original city boundaries (like the original city of london) are archaic and meaningless today. Political boundaries are also relatively meaningless as urban/suburban growth has caused towns/cities to grow to their borders to become contiguous. Metro areas are closest to relevant, but still are not equivalent since some metro areas are free to sprawl out for hundreds or thousands of square miles (LA/San Diego Metro) while others are geographically constrained (SF Metro). Is it total contiguous population or population density that we care about when we bother to quote this kind of statistic?