thumbnail

Biggest World Cities A-Z

Starting with each letter A-Z, guess the world city with the highest urban area population.
According to citypopulation.de, January 2025
Quiz by Quizmaster
Rate:
Last updated: March 10, 2025
You have not attempted this quiz yet.
First submittedFebruary 10, 2012
Times taken193,656
Average score69.2%
Rating4.55
5:00
Enter city here
0
 / 26 guessed
The quiz is paused. You have remaining.
Scoring
You scored / = %
This beats or equals % of test takers also scored 100%
The average score is
Your high score is
Your fastest time is
Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...
 
Population
Region
City
A
9.90 m
South Asia
Ahmedabad
B
21.8 m
Southeast Asia
Bangkok
C
22.8 m
Africa
Cairo
D
35.7 m
South Asia
Delhi
E
1.46 m
North America
Edmonton
F
4.78 m
East Asia
Fuzhou
G
72.7 m
East Asia
Guangzhou
H
14.6 m
East Asia
Hangzhou
I
16.0 m
Near East
Istanbul
J
29.5 m
Southeast Asia
Jakarta
K
21.0 m
South Asia
Karachi
L
21.3 m
Africa
Lagos
M
27.8 m
Southeast Asia
Manila
 
Population
Region
City
N
21.8 m
North America
New York City
O
17.7 m
East Asia
Osaka
P
11.5 m
Europe
Paris
Q
7.70 m
East Asia
Qingdao
R
13.6 m
South America
Rio de Janeiro
S
41.6 m
East Asia
Shanghai
T
41.2 m
East Asia
Tokyo
U
5.00 m
East Asia
Urumqi
V
3.18 m
North America
Vancouver
W
12.6 m
East Asia
Wuhan
X
15.4 m
East Asia
Xiamen
Y
5.65 m
Southeast Asia
Yangon
Z
10.3 m
East Asia
Zhengzhou
101 Recent Comments
+3
Level 67
Oct 11, 2018
Urban area and Metropolitan population are the same, right?
+2
Level 43
Mar 10, 2025
No, urban is an agglomeration and the managed area, so further than the city borders. Metropolitan is inside the borders.

Fun Fact: Tokyo is not a city, so many Quizmasters have to (!) use urban area in favor of metropolitan area.

+1
Level 73
Mar 22, 2025
Interesting, apparently, officially it is a prefecture,
+2
Level 71
Feb 21, 2019
could you please accept xiamin as an alternate spelling?
+5
Level 41
Dec 28, 2021
No.
+12
Level 77
Jul 10, 2019
It's so strange how there are no bigger cities beginning with E. It's not like E is an uncommon letter in most other languages or anything.
+6
Level 87
Jul 10, 2019
I agree with you about that, Tramp. You'd think there would be a lot of cities named "East" something, too.
+4
Level 86
Apr 17, 2022
Tokyo means “eastern capital”.
+2
Level 43
Jul 18, 2022
In what language?
+4
Level 67
Feb 22, 2024
!Xóõ
+1
Level 79
Mar 13, 2025
The language they speak in Tokyo!!
+4
Level 53
Dec 8, 2022
tokyoese
+1
Level 81
Jul 10, 2019
Pretty easy with the region clues
+9
Level 74
Jul 17, 2019
But we're not all know-it-alls.
+6
Level 81
Feb 11, 2020
All quizzes are difficult if you don't know things.
+1
Level 73
May 7, 2025
so do you want a medal?
+3
Level 67
Feb 22, 2024
Do you not recognize the regions???
+3
Level 68
Jul 11, 2019
When you just play around and completely guess Fuzhou and it works!
+2
Level 58
Jul 11, 2019
Only missed X and Z, not too bad
+3
Level 74
Jul 17, 2019
Citypopulation.de;

Xiamen 2016 estimate; 3,920,000

Xi'an 2016 estimate; 8,832,100

+3
Level ∞
Jul 17, 2019
Urban area population
+2
Level 46
Jul 20, 2019
Edmonton? Really?
+4
Level 50
Aug 28, 2019
lmao i guessed zhengzhou because it sounds like a chinese city name and it counted
+4
Level 70
Aug 29, 2019
I feel so dumb. I got everything except for Vancouver, where I live.
+5
Level 47
Aug 31, 2019
All I could think was Kolkata for K when I forgot Karachi!
+2
Level 45
Jan 14, 2020
Harder than I thought it would be! Thumbs up though :)
+8
Level 70
Jan 29, 2020
I guessed Edmonton as a joke figuring I missed some obvious US city... wow was I wrong. That's actually kind of hilarious.
+6
Level 73
Mar 8, 2020
Only two that came to mind were edmonton and edinburgh and I dismissed both, thinking, surely there are bigger ones around..
+3
Level 81
Feb 24, 2020
Citypopulation.de lists Wuhan as larger than Washington, and its numbers are if anything conservative (most figures elsewhere seem to say 11 million - they've been quoted in the media a lot recently for some reason...)
+2
Level 83
Nov 4, 2020
yeah, pretty sure this is including the surrounding region. I live in the Baltimore-DC area, and Washington is not that big XD
+2
Level 63
May 8, 2023
Changed by now.
+3
Level 41
Apr 27, 2020
Just wondering, why Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan etc. are still considered with Guangzhou for urban area, while Chongqing which is today supposed to be the biggest urban agglomeration in the world (at least according to some Chinese sources) is still listed with few million inhabitants?
+3
Level 41
Dec 28, 2021
Chongqing is actually still quite far from being the biggest. Yes, it can be considered be the biggest, but only if you count the population based on city proper. The area of the municipality of Chongqing legally is about the size of Austria, so it makes sense why it has a lot of population. But not all parts of Chongqing are urban areas though, hence, its urban area population are actually smaller than its city proper population. Even Chinese cities like Shanghai, Beijing & Guangzhou are still bigger in terms of urban areas population.

For your information, the top 3 biggest urban agglomerations in China are : Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta & Jing-Jin-Ji Region. You may look them up and look for their population size, which are tens of millions of people, the size comparable to countries like Spain, Italy or UK (size varies by sources). Each of them consist of multiple large cities with their own metropolitan areas. They are also among the world's largest urban agglomerations

+9
Level 48
May 8, 2020
I would have said Urumqi was Central Asia
+2
Level 58
Jul 26, 2020
So true, I was confused myself
+3
Level 35
Jun 11, 2020
alternative title: how many cities in china and india can you name? /j
+6
Level 34
Apr 8, 2024
India has 2 cities there, so was Japan and Canada with 2 each too. So what's your point including india in your comment? Ofc you wouldnt add japan and canada🙄
+2
Level 61
Jun 17, 2020
DIHUA?
+2
Level 58
Aug 9, 2020
I am pretty sure that you are wrong about Edmonton having 1.3 million people. As far as I know, Canada only has 3 cities with over 1 million; Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary (Where I live.)
+10
Level 60
Aug 13, 2020
urban area
+2
Level 60
Dec 18, 2020
how did i forget New York and Osaka and tokyo? those were so obvious
+2
Level 43
Jul 18, 2022
It’s ok I forgot Osaka and Istanbul and New Delhi
+2
Level 44
Dec 19, 2020
I'm well impressed I got Ürümqi
+2
Level 43
Dec 29, 2020
How did I get Xiamen but miss Shanghai?
+2
Level 97
Feb 25, 2021
Great quiz- easy to do after having spent a bunch of times doing the biggest cities by continent and letter quiz!
+2
Level 67
Feb 25, 2021
Year after year a new Asian city is getting a new letter from this quiz.
+5
Level 89
Feb 25, 2021
If Hawaii is considered as part of Oceania on official quizzes, then how is Ürümqi a part of East Asia?
+2
Level 59
Mar 5, 2021
I assume it's because it is in China, despite how far West it is.
+3
Level 63
May 8, 2023
And Hawaii is in the United States, despite how far West it is.
+8
Level 70
Feb 26, 2021
With Wuhan overtaking Washington, DC, Canada now has more representation on this quiz than the United States.
+3
Level 59
Mar 5, 2021
Ho Chi Minh City has more people than Hyderabad now. Is it not included for a reason (because it's also called Saigon) or was it just missed during the update?
+2
Level ∞
Mar 5, 2021
My mistake, now fixed.
+2
Level 65
Mar 10, 2021
99/100, only missed Zhengzhou (China), worst thing is that I have actually been there before and even spent the night...

Perhaps I missed it because 'zh' in standard Mandarin is pronounced similarly to 'j' in English.

+2
Level 56
Mar 12, 2021
That was my only miss too. I felt quite bad, since I I went chronologically through everything and just did not come up with Zhengzhou :s
+4
Level 63
May 8, 2023
Out of 100? You're on a whole different level.
+3
Level 51
Mar 12, 2021
Why did I think H was Hanoi?
+2
Level 67
Feb 22, 2024
Because it's another large urban area in SE Asia?
+3
Level 72
Mar 12, 2021
My mind also went for Hanoi.

I don't like calling Saigon "Ho Chi Minh". he was a bad guy and should not have this great city named after him. I'm glad JetPunk accepts Saigon for HCMC.

+5
Level 81
Mar 14, 2021
Two Canadian cities sneak on here by naming themselves with unpopular initial letters...
+2
Level 43
Mar 22, 2021
Amazing quiz
+2
Level 70
Apr 8, 2021
Urumqi but not Guangzhou
+4
Level 52
Aug 19, 2021
I'm Canadian and typed in Edmonton as a joke and it actually worked...
+2
Level 44
Nov 22, 2021
I missed Paris ._.
+2
Level 67
Jan 13, 2022
Thought I was getting them all. Then I hit Z. Chinese cities are all way too similar to remember, and so many. I tried Zhenzhen, Zhenzhao, Zhaozhang, Zhenzhou...
+2
Level 81
Mar 23, 2022
The spelling of chinese cities is my achilles heel. I was certain it was Zhangzhou
+4
Level 67
Feb 22, 2024
That's actually a separate city near Xiamen
+6
Level 59
Mar 23, 2022
It's amazing how Canada has two cities on this quiz.
+2
Level 27
Jun 16, 2022
got zhenzhou, forgot rio and shanghai
+6
Level 78
Oct 3, 2022
Claiming Urumqi is in East Asia misled me. Even if it's part of China, I don't think it's a suitable definition when one wants to define the location of the city.
+2
Level 81
Nov 8, 2022
Why not?
+6
Level 63
Aug 28, 2023
Urumqi is in Central Asia, even if it's part of China. Similar to Hawaii being Oceanic, not North American.
+3
Level 67
Feb 22, 2024
It is very clearly located in CA and not EA
+4
Level 28
Nov 24, 2022
How can vancouver with 3 million and edmonton with 2 million population be here but not london with 8 million?
+4
Level 67
Feb 22, 2024
Because Lagos
+3
Level 33
Dec 7, 2022
This quiz is so easy for chinese people. I can almost guess out every asian city 青岛 北京 上海 乌鲁木齐 郑州 福州 武汉 厦门 广州 all of these are cities in china lmao
+3
Level 69
Mar 8, 2023
The population of Fuzhou is a typo surely? 4.55 million would make a lot more sense than 45.5 especially considering that Fujian (the province Fuzhou is in) apparently has a population of 38.56 million and also contains Xiamen.
+3
Level ∞
Mar 8, 2023
Yes, fixed.
+6
Level 56
May 8, 2023
Ürümchi is a city in Central Asia!

Not in East Asia like the majority.

+2
Level 74
May 8, 2023
It is central Asia, but that would probably confuse people since all the other Chinese cities are listed as east Asia.
+3
Level 63
Aug 28, 2023
Just because it's confusing doesn't mean we should modify the truth.
+3
Level 49
May 8, 2023
i didnt get tokyo this is so embarrassing
+2
Level 26
Oct 26, 2024
well i didnt get delhi, guangzhou and rio de janeiro
+2
Level 49
Apr 29, 2024
i was stuck on U and the only thing i could think of was ulster lmao
+2
Level 43
Nov 1, 2024
Ezhou is larger than Edmonton.
+3
Level 63
Jan 10, 2025
It's only 700k, according to citypopulation.de.
+2
Level 47
Dec 9, 2024
BISHKEK
+1
Level 73
Mar 23, 2025
That name always makes me think of cake.. I guess it reminds me of biscuit+cake biskek
+3
Level 62
Mar 10, 2025
21.8m for NYC?? hmmm. Did we get that mixed up with NY state?
+2
Level 70
Mar 10, 2025
The 21.8m comes from citypopulation.de which uses "Metro Population" instead of "City Population". This gives a better idea of how many people are in a city in a given day versus how many people live in a specific government drawn line that a lot of times doesn't match the city at all. For the best example I have found of this look at the map of Los Angeles metro area versus the actual city limits. It's ridiculous.

Given this, the NYC metro area actually includes parts of NJ, CT, and even a couple counties in PA. Which leads to it actually having a larger population than NY state.

+2
Level 82
Mar 10, 2025
citypopulation.de says Hangzhou is more populous than Ho Chi Minh City
+2
Level ∞
Mar 10, 2025
Fixed
+2
Level 59
Mar 10, 2025
xiamen is smaller than xi'an
+3
Level 65
Mar 11, 2025
In Jetpunk Xiamen usually includes nearby urban areas like Zhangzhou.
+2
Level 84
Mar 11, 2025
Zhengzhou is separate though
+1
Level 58
Mar 12, 2025
ZhEngzhou and ZhAngzhou are not the same
+3
Level 70
Mar 11, 2025
Ecatepec is larger than Edmonton, isn't?
+2
Level 78
Mar 11, 2025
I didn't think of Yangon being in SE Asia. To me, it counts more as South Asia, so never considered Myanmar as a candidate.
+1
Level 84
Mar 13, 2025
Pretty easy with the region being given!
+1
Level 59
Mar 21, 2025
Got Fuzhou because that is where my dad and grandparents are from :D
+1
Level 86
Apr 3, 2025
Interesting country rankings:

China 9

Canada 2

India 2

Japan 2

Brazil 1

Egypt 1

France 1

Indonesia 1

Myanmar 1

Nigeria 1

Pakistan 1

Philippines 1

Thailand 1

Turkey 1

United States 1

+1
Level 63
Apr 13, 2025
Very interesting how E is the most common letter to start a word in English, yet Edmonton is the city with the lowest population on here.