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This article ranks the world's largest cities, in population and/or land area, using a variety of ranking methods.

Ambiguities in measuring the "size" of a city

The question of determining the world's largest cities does not allow a single, simple answer. It depends on which definitions of "city" and "size" are used, and how those definitions are applied. Complex political/cultural/social situations, sometimes controversial or disputed, further confuse the discussion. Debate on this field is highly vulnerable to bias or manipulation, as people^[who?] tend to prefer whichever definition most flatters their own city.

The "size" of a city can refer to either its land area or, more typically, its population.

The boundaries of a city can also be defined in any of several ways:

Morphological

"City" defined as a physically contiguous urban area, without regard to territorial or other boundaries. The delineation is usually done using some type of urban density, such as population density or density of buildings (for example, "gaps between structures may not exceed 200 metres"). Satellite and/or aerial maps may be used. For statistical convenience, such areas are sometimes adjusted to appropriate administrative boundaries, yielding an agglomeration.

Functional

"City" as defined by the habits of its demographic population, as by metropolitan area, labour market area, or similar. Such definitions are usually based on commuting between home and work. Commuter flow thresholds into the core urban area are established by the national census authority, determining which areas are included.

City Proper (Administrative)

"City" as strictly defined by a given government (city proper). Typically based on a municipality or equivalent entity, or sometimes a group of municipalities under a regional government.

Cities making the top 20 in a list

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The numbers after each cell give the ranking of that city in that list. This table is designed to be a way to compare the different lists and discover which cities are well-recognised by all of them, without favouring one list over the others. Rankings in bold are the rankings of the cities in the top 20 of each sources' list. The first four columns are the four different lists used by Wikipedia; after them, external sources are given.

City	Country	Morph.	Morph. (UN)	Funct.	Proper	WorldAtlas	World Gazetteer	City Population
Beijing	People's Republic of China	18	16	19	9	12	23	20
Bogotá	Colombia	35	30	1000	20	30	36	33
Buenos Aires	Argentina	16	10	17	59	10	16	17
Cairo	Egypt	11	13	16	25	17	13	16
Delhi	India	6	6	8	4	14	9	4
Dhaka	Bangladesh	24	9	1000	24	15	18	19
Guangzhou	People's Republic of China	19	25	1000	26	44	61	2
Istanbul	Turkey	21	19	1000	5	23	17	22
Jakarta	Indonesia	2	23	6	12	21	8	11
Karachi	Pakistan	18	10	20	3	13	22	13
Kinshasa	Democratic Republic of the Congo	30	29	1000	17	46	28	32
Kolkata	India	12	8	14	32	9	14	15
Lagos	Nigeria	28	22	1000	15	7	19	25
Lima	Peru	34	27	1000	18	26	40	30
London	United Kingdom	29	26	18	19	25	20	23
Los Angeles	United States	13	11	13	47	8	11	12
Manila	Philippines	5	17	11	1000	16	7	9
Mexico City	Mexico	9	3	3	10	2	2	6
Moscow	Russia	16	18	15	7	24	15	17
Mumbai	India	4	4	5	2	3	5	5
New York	United States	3	2	4	13	5	3	8
Osaka	Japan	10	15	9	1000	18	12	13
Paris	France	22	20	1000	1000	22	25	26
Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	20	14	1000	27	19	24	23
São Paulo	Brazil	8	5	7	6	4	6	8
Seoul	South Korea	3	21	2	8	2	4	3
Shanghai	People's Republic of China	14	7	10	1	6	10	10
Shenzhen	People's Republic of China	15	31	12	1000	1000	1000	28
Tehran	Iran	33	28	1000	16	27	21	21
Tianjin	People's Republic of China	31	34	1000	30	20	52	35
Tokyo	Japan	1	1	1	10	1	1	1
Wuhan	People's Republic of China	55	32	1000	14	49	85	30

See also

• Historical urban community sizes
• List of cities by continent
  • List of cities in Africa
  • Largest cities in the Americas
    • List of cities in North America
      • List of the 100 largest cities in Canada by population
      • List of United States cities by population
    • List of cities in South America
      • List of largest cities in Brazil
  • List of cities in Asia
  • List of cities in Europe
    • List of European capital cities by area
  • List of cities in Oceania
• List of largest cities throughout history
• List of towns and cities with 100,000 or more inhabitants
• List of countries and territories by continent
• List of cities with the most high-rise buildings
• List of cities with most skyscrapers
• List of largest cities in Central America
• Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
• List of highest cities in the world