Largest City in the World

Answering the question, what is the largest city in the world? is a little difficult. There are a number of parameters, which have a role to play, that will help in finding an answer. The first parameter is the definition of the word 'city' itself. Then comes factors like 'size' in terms of land area, wherein most people believe that this should be the chosen parameter for adjudging the largest city in the world. With the changing geographical scenario, the borders of a city can also change, at the same time, different ways can be used to define these borders. Hence, we will define a city, then decide which is the largest city in the world and which is the second largest city in the world.

Defining a City

If the city has to be defined morphologically, then it is a physically contiguous urban area, without regards to its territorial or administrative or other such boundaries. When the process of delineation is undertaken, it is so done using some type of urban density, like population density or density of buildings, etc. These days satellite and/or aerial maps are often used for the process. For statistical convenience, in some cases, some areas are sometimes adjusted to appropriate administrative boundaries.

When the administrative aspect of defining a city taken into consideration, then a city is defined strictly by a given government. Normally, it is based on a municipality or an equivalent entity. Sometimes a group of municipalities together can also form a regional government in a particular city. A city can also be defined by its functional parameters, which include the habits of the demographic population, by metropolitan area, labor market, etc. Such demarcation is based on commuting between home and work.

Largest City in the World

After having read about, how a city is defined, we will now use different parameters and read about the largest city in the world. If you believe, that the largest city in the world is located in the largest country in the world, then you are mistaken.

Largest City in the World by Area
There is a non-exhaustive list of largest city in the world by size, in other words, in terms of the surface area of their municipalities. The list is limited to clear and unambiguously defined political jurisdictions, that identify themselves as cities. This is in contrast to a metropolitan area, that may also include multiple cities all under the jurisdiction of different city councils.

City	Country	Area (In Sq Miles)
Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia	China	101,913
Altamira, Pará	Brazil	61,659
City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia	Australia	36,901
Chongqing	China	31,815
Wood Buffalo, Alberta	Canada	24,456
City of Mount Isa, Queensland	Australia	17,606
Leh	India	17,417
Porto Velho, Rondonia	Brazil	13,159
La Tuque, Quebec	Canada	11,466
Yakutat City and Borough, Alaska	United States	9,459

Largest City in the World by Population
We will now see the most populous cities of the world. These cities are defined according to the concept of city proper. The table below has the world's largest urban municipal units, according to population. The population mentioned in the table is for the city proper and not for urban area or for the metropolitan area.

City	Country	Population*
Shanghai	China	13,831,900
Mumbai	India	13,830,884
Karachi	Pakistan	12,991,000
Delhi	India	12,565,901
Istanbul	Turkey	11,372,613
São Paulo	Brazil	11,037,593
Moscow	Russia	10,508,971
Seoul	South Korea	10,464,051
Beijing	China	10,123,000
Mexico City	Mexico	8,841,916

^{* - The population figures mentioned are according to the latest available.}

Largest Metropolitan Area in the World by Population
A metropolitan area is based on the concept of labor market area and is often defined as an employment core, which is an area, that has a high density of available jobs, along with the surrounding area, which have strong commuting ties to the core. As of now, there is no generally accepted, globally consistent definition of exactly, what makes a metropolitan area. Hence, making comparison between cities in different countries is at times, very difficult.

Metropolitan Area	Country	Population*	Area (In sq km)
Tokyo	Japan	32,450,000	8,014
Seoul	South Korea	20,550,000	5,076
Mexico City	Mexico	20,450,000	7,346
New York City	United States of America	19,750,000	17,884
Mumbai	India	19,200,000	2,350
Jakarta	Indonesia	18,900,000	5,100
São Paulo	Brazil	18,850,000	8,479
Delhi	India	18,600,000	3,182
Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto	Japan	17,375,000	6,930
Shanghai	People's Republic of China	16,650,000	5,177

^{* - The population figures mentioned are according to the latest available.}

After reading about largest city in the world, you may have doubts about population density of a particular city. It is calculated based on the area of the city and population of the city. Larger the population and lesser the area, higher is the population density.