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Biggest Cities with Exceptions

Most of the world's biggest cities are in Asia. Try to name the biggest cities in the world that AREN'T.
Urban area population, according to citypopulation.de - January 2025
One loosely-defined area and one transcontinental city have been filled in by default
Quiz by
relessness
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Last updated: March 13, 2025
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First submittedMarch 31, 2016
Times taken79,311
Average score70.3%
Rating4.90
Quiz and answer stats >>
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Population
Urban Area
25.4 m
Mexico City
22.8 m
Cairo
22.6 m
São Paulo
21.8 m
New York
21.3 m
Lagos
18.8 m
Moscow
17.1 m
Los Angeles
16.8 m
Buenos Aires
16.3 m
Kinshasa
16.0 m
Istanbul
15.1 m
London
14.8 m
Johannesburg
13.6 m
Rio de Janeiro
12.0 m
Lima
11.5 m
Paris
10.9 m
Rhine-Ruhr
10.6 m
Bogota
9.65 m
Luanda
9.60 m
Chicago
8.65 m
Washington, D.C /
Baltimore
8.40 m
Santiago
7.85 m
Toronto
7.80 m
Dallas
7.70 m
Boston
7.50 m
Philadelphia
7.50 m
San Francisco
7.20 m
Khartoum
7.20 m
Houston
7.05 m
Abidjan
6.90 m
Nairobi
6.80 m
Accra
6.70 m
Madrid
6.65 m
Dar es Salaam
6.35 m
Saint Petersburg
6.30 m
Miami
6.25 m
Alexandria
6.15 m
Atlanta
6.15 m
Milan
6.15 m
Monterrey
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69 Comments
joeythelemur
+17
Level 80
Aug 1, 2016
Why can I never remember Atlanta exists? :-\
Djilas
+3
Level 86
Oct 12, 2016
I do that about Toronto ...
Maladroit
+1
Level 50
Mar 12, 2018
Well now, at least in America, we're unforgettable. Not in a good way, though...
IsleAuHaulte
+2
Level 92
Jun 26, 2018
Because it's quasi-urban at best, very, very spread out.
French2010
+2
Level 96
Aug 1, 2016
Very fun quiz. Small typo - Belo Horizonte is showing as 1.93 instead of 4.93 which I assume is the correct figure.
HectorVortac
+4
Level 47
Oct 21, 2016
Might have done better had I remembered the 17 million person metro area I used to live in.
Omnikin
+1
Level 68
Oct 21, 2016
Istanbul is in Turkey (Asia).
fuanacdc
+24
Level 89
Oct 21, 2016
Here we go
ander217
+17
Level 73
Oct 21, 2016
"Includes cities that are transcontinental" - Istanbul fits that caveat since it is in both Europe and Asia.
Findlay
+9
Level 80
Feb 11, 2020
According to the Turkish Government, more than 8 million of Istanbul's population lived on the European side in 2010, meaning even just counting the part not in Asia, it easily made this list (and it has grown considerably since then). Then of course there's the caveat about transcontinental cities.
PoetsCorner
+2
Level 87
Apr 7, 2024
I have sat in a restaurant on the European side of Istanbul and LOOKED at the bridge that crosses the Bosphorus into Asia. It's always funny when people imply that this experience doesn't exist.
relessness
+23
Level 46
Oct 21, 2016
33/50 I made this quiz... what on earth :(
joeythelemur
+8
Level 80
Oct 21, 2016
Ha! Too busy makin' 'em and not enough time takin' 'em! :-)
Sifhraven
+1
Level 76
Feb 26, 2020
Maybe you do better on "not on earth" ;) I agree, earth geography can be tricky :)
Omnikin
+1
Level 68
Oct 21, 2016
40/50, new record for me!
angrobper14
+2
Level 86
Oct 21, 2016
Nice pic of Mexico, and it was also nice that you accept just "Mexico" as a valid answer.
rawe
+1
Level 70
Oct 21, 2016
41/50
Algernon
+1
Level 74
Oct 23, 2016
Great quiz. Could do with a bit more time though. I still had about a dozen to type in when I ran out of time and I hadn't reached the stage of 'name any remotely big/famous city and hope'.
Maladroit
+1
Level 50
Mar 12, 2018
Would that have got you Casablanca?
Quizmaster
+2
Level ∞
Feb 10, 2020
Added one more minute
Parinter
+1
Level 43
Oct 24, 2016
Forgot Mexico City.... :\
thebest21
+2
Level 70
Dec 1, 2016
47/50 but could have done it with more time. It is amazing how many cities disappear from this list when Asia is not included!
catlover2496
+1
Level 43
Feb 16, 2017
Mexico City is bigger than New York City? Didn't expect that!
Findlay
+6
Level 80
Feb 11, 2020
Depends on the source. Depending on what you consult NYC, Mexico City or Sao Paulo will be given as the largest city in the Americas. Defining metro areas is a messy business
Antofagasta
+1
Level 70
Jun 8, 2017
Missed one. One. I thought: start with U.S., leave Canada 'til later. Arrgh!
McLerristarr
+2
Level 62
May 23, 2019
Shouldn't Rome be on here?
Quizmaster
+6
Level ∞
Feb 10, 2020
No.
Prakash14
+1
Level 56
Dec 17, 2019
47/50 and I forgot Cairo and St Petersburg, lmao
kalbahamut
+1
Level 79
Feb 11, 2020
>_< grrr ... after the update I only missed Alexandria. I started with Africa and even with Egypt. I think Cairo was the first one I got. I was sure I had typed it in already.
Malbaby
+1
Level 70
Feb 12, 2020
Good quiz......... with 3 seconds to go I tried to type Buenos Aires ........ didn't.
Bubblecat
+1
Level 78
Feb 13, 2020
Would've got an extra one if I hadn't misspelt Abidjan :P
NauruPalau
+1
Level 48
Feb 22, 2020
Missed St. Petersburg, Alexandria, Detroit, Phoenix, and belo Horizonte. Never heard of the last one
Sifhraven
+3
Level 76
Mar 13, 2020
You will, as you do more quizzes on here. Last year I hadnt heard of it either.
nokay
+6
Level 66
Mar 1, 2020
Kind of surprised that Addis Ababa isn't on here
Germanwolverine
+1
Level 65
Mar 3, 2020
Half of Istanbul is in Asia though
PoetsCorner
+5
Level 87
Aug 4, 2022
Nowhere near half.
Nordleman
+2
Level 46
Mar 13, 2020
Seattle definitely shouldn't be on this list lol the population isn't even over 1 million let alone 4.5.
robin2065
+3
Level 71
Mar 13, 2020
Metro population, not city proper
blausand
+2
Level 4
Mar 13, 2020
Man, really, go and solve that unjoyful pairing of Köln and Düsseldorf immediately!

No one of either city would ever build a sum of the two population figures.

The Ruhr Area, fine. Köln or Düsseldorf - no way for any of them to end up in this list.

seabird
+1
Level 69
Mar 13, 2020
Missed my hometown. Had no idea it would be on this list.
Antimatter
+2
Level 51
May 2, 2020
Istanbul is cheating!!! ;) :P
PoetsCorner
+4
Level 87
May 11, 2023
They were all very honest with me when I was there.
dirtyorange
+1
Level 75
May 26, 2020
I'm an American and I missed five US cities. I'm so ashamed.
Fishyyy
+1
Level 62
Jun 10, 2020
very inaccurate, Sao Paulo is larger then Mexico City and how is San Francisco larger then Houston and Phoenix?
Fishyyy
+1
Level 62
Jun 10, 2020
Why isn't Kiev on the list?
JackintheBox
+1
Level 82
Jul 21, 2020
Got all but Toronto and Philadelphia! (Forgot about Canada)
chipwrecks
+1
Level 60
Dec 23, 2020
San Antonio by all accounts is larger than many of the cities on this list.
Minutiae
+2
Level 74
Aug 14, 2021
Got all but... Berlin.
boltos
+2
Level 77
Feb 13, 2022
Fun quiz. I basically just went through as many NFL or MLB locations as I could think, then big UEFA teams, the two from Oz and as many African places as I could think. Enjoyed this. Thank you.
Georockstar
+2
Level 58
Jun 29, 2022
Noooo just one was left.. Accra?
ergillo
+1
Level 56
Dec 21, 2022
Milan has 3.25M people in the whole metropolitan area, just mthe city is 1.5M (Rome metropolitan area has 4.5M)
ariweiss
+1
Level 70
Apr 12, 2023
How did I remember Abidjan, but not Miami or Philadelphia....
Daniel1712
+5
Level 72
Sep 14, 2023
It’s finally fun without 20 Chinese, 15 Indian and 10 South East Asian cities
Detonator136
+1
Level 65
Nov 29, 2023
47/48, forgot about Atlanta... :((
g4ndalf
+1
Level 78
Mar 14, 2025
Missed Monterrey. Thought for sure Guadalajara was bigger.
DavidfromBA
+1
Level 75
Mar 14, 2025
Quest for perfect score foiled by Accra.
lodo1899
+1
Level 55
Mar 15, 2025
missed Accra and Atlanta
Aoto327
+1
Level 87
Mar 27, 2025
Got all except Lima.
Muncie
+1
Level 75
Apr 22, 2025
Thought Phoenix was larger than Atlanta, Philly, and Miami. Am I thinking of metro area population?
PolPetrol
+3
Level 59
Apr 23, 2025
citypopulation.de is a terrible source. "Urban area" is a completely whimsical definition, ESPECIALLY on that site. For example: the Ruhr area is listed as having 11M people. In reality, it's only 5.1M. You'd need to inlude a LOT of non-urban area around the Ruhr area to get to 11M. And at that point, the population density is lower (600/km²) than that of Flanders. So by that metric, you might as well say that the whole region of Flanders is a "city" that should be in this list.

Which it is not.

Ergo: it's all INCREDIBLY dubious "data".

Please never use that site again.

Papafrost
+1
Level 69
May 7, 2025
Same with Paris, which has about 2 Million residents.
vietTree
+1
Level 62
Apr 24, 2025
whoa, i completely forgot about Africa until the last minute
pieman
+1
Level 58
Apr 25, 2025
31/37 on the first try, 36/37 on the second. how could I miss Alexandria twice?!
jxgalt
+3
Level 86
Apr 26, 2025
Citypopulation.de gets its stats from a random number generator. Metro Boston is 7.7 million? If you add every county in the eastern half of Massachusetts, and the entire states of New Hampshire and Rhode Island, you only get to 7.2 million. It's quite ridiculous.
aistiai
+1
Level 40
Oct 1, 2025
35/37. Missed St. Petersburg and Monterrey :P
ProbablyANerd
+1
Level 46
Oct 25, 2025
33/37

How could I miss Dallas?!

greenredblue
+1
Level 37
Nov 5, 2025
I only missed Abidjan and Khartoum
hippach
+2
Level 56
Nov 11, 2025
So the entire state of Massachusetts has a population of 7,1 million. but the metropolitan city of Boston has 7,7.....?
HeeHoo
+1
Level 70
Apr 12, 2026
According to citypopulation.de Manchester has now overtaken both Atlanta and Monterrey
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