Indonesia's capital Jakarta has been counted as the world's most populous city, ahead of Dhaka in Bangladesh and Tokyo in Japan.
According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) report World Urbanization Prospects 2025 published on the 26th (local time), the population of the Jakarta metropolitan area reached 42 million, ranking No. 1 worldwide ahead of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh (40 million), and Tokyo, the capital of Japan (33 million). Cairo, the capital of Egypt, was the only city in the top 10 that is not in Asia.
Jakarta's population was only 10 million seven years ago, placing it 33rd in the global city population rankings, but it has since surged, surpassing Tokyo, the previous No. 1. Indonesia's total population is currently 285 million, the fourth largest in the world.
The so-called megacities with populations of more than 10 million numbered only eight in 1975, but 50 years later this year have increased to 33. Of these, more than half—19—are in Asia, it was found.
The United Nations projected that as the populations of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Hyderabad (India), and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) are expected to exceed 10 million, the number of megacities will increase further to 37 by 2050.
The report assessed that 45% of the world's 8.2 billion people currently live in cities and that the world is becoming increasingly urbanized. Seventy-five years ago, in 1950, only 20% of the then world population of 2.5 billion lived in cities.