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100 Biggest Cities on a World Map

With the help of a map, try to name the 100 most populous urban areas in the world.
As of January 2024 according to citypopulation.de
Urban area population, not city proper population
One loosely-defined area (The Ruhr) has been filled in
Quiz by relessness
Rate:
Last updated: March 3, 2024
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First submittedOctober 24, 2016
Times taken375,983
Average score60.0%
Rating4.99
10:00
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Population
City
70.1 m
Guangzhou / Shenzhen
41.0 m
Tokyo
40.8 m
Shanghai / Suzhou
34.6 m
Delhi
29.2 m
Jakarta
27.2 m
Manila
27.1 m
Mumbai
25.1 m
Mexico City
25.1 m
Seoul
22.5 m
Cairo
22.5 m
Dhaka
22.1 m
São Paulo
22.0 m
New York City
21.2 m
Bangkok
21.2 m
Beijing
20.9 m
Karachi
20.7 m
Lagos
19.1 m
Moscow
17.7 m
Kolkata
17.7 m
Osaka
17.3 m
Chengdu
17.2 m
Los Angeles
16.7 m
Buenos Aires
16.5 m
Tehran
15.9 m
Istanbul
15.6 m
Kinshasa
14.9 m
London
14.9 m
Xiamen
14.6 m
Johannesburg
14.5 m
Lahore
14.2 m
Bangalore
13.9 m
Hangzhou
13.9 m
Ho Chi Minh City
12.8 m
Xi'an
Population
City
12.6 m
Chennai
12.5 m
Rio de Janeiro
12.2 m
Wuhan
11.8 m
Lima
11.5 m
Paris
11.5 m
Tianjin
11.4 m
Hyderabad
11.0 m
Changsha
10.9 m
Chongqing
10.5 m
Nagoya
10.4 m
Bogotá
9.95 m
Taipei
9.80 m
Zhengzhou
9.65 m
Chicago
9.60 m
Ahmedabad
9.35 m
Luanda
9.30 m
Kuala Lumpur
9.30 m
Nanjing
8.70 m
Shenyang
8.55 m
Washington / Baltimore
8.25 m
Santiago
8.00 m
Shantou
7.85 m
Singapore
7.80 m
Hefei
7.75 m
Pune
7.75 m
Surat
7.70 m
Boston
7.70 m
Toronto
7.65 m
Baghdad
7.65 m
Dallas
7.50 m
Philadelphia
7.50 m
Riyadh
7.45 m
Qingdao
7.45 m
San Francisco
Population
City
7.30 m
Ningbo
7.25 m
Hong Kong
7.15 m
Hanoi
7.05 m
Houston
7.05 m
Khartoum
6.95 m
Bandung
6.80 m
Abidjan
6.70 m
Nairobi
6.65 m
Madrid
6.60 m
Accra
6.55 m
Jinan
6.50 m
Kunming
6.50 m
Saint Petersburg
6.30 m
Miami
6.25 m
Dar es Salaam
6.20 m
Alexandria
6.20 m
Shijiazhuang
6.15 m
Yangon
6.10 m
Atlanta
6.10 m
Milan
6.00 m
Amman
6.00 m
Monterrey
5.95 m
Dubai
5.95 m
Taiyuan
5.90 m
Surabaya
5.85 m
Guadalajara
5.75 m
Detroit
5.65 m
The Ruhr
5.45 m
Bamako
5.45 m
Harbin
5.30 m
Dalian
5.30 m
Nanning
5.20 m
Kano
100 Recent Comments
+94
Level ∞
Feb 28, 2021
2021 update. Goodbye Berlin. Hello, Kano.
+20
Level 45
Apr 19, 2020
The increase in people naming Wuhan must be decent now aha
+2
Level 53
Jun 5, 2020
Got 94 and forgot Jeddah. Also almost forgot Hong Kong
+3
Level 55
Jul 9, 2020
Forgot Wuhan *facepalm*
+9
Level 87
Jan 10, 2022
Nowadays, no one is ever likely to forget Wuhan.
+2
Level 62
Nov 7, 2022
I just forgot Wuhan...:(
+6
Level 44
Feb 22, 2024
after covid, nobody forgets Wuhan.
+3
Level 47
Sep 3, 2020
Some of these numbers seem a bit high. 22 million in NYC? That can't be true, because there's only 19 million in the entire state.
+14
Level 53
Oct 27, 2020
This is the urban area population, so it includes suburbs that are out of New York state borders.
+2
Level 87
Jan 10, 2022
Much of New Jersey, Connecticut, and a bit of Pennsylvania are within the NYC greater metro area.
+2
Level 46
Sep 29, 2020
Only missed Nanjing and Zhengzhou.
+2
Level 63
Oct 2, 2020
Embarrassingly missed Surabaya
+3
Level 49
Oct 20, 2020
BH shouldn't be accepted for Bell Horizonte if LA isn't going to be accepted for Los Angeles.
+19
Level 78
Feb 28, 2021
BH - no other (major) cities start with BH (With the exception of Bhopal, India)

LA - Las Vegas, Lagos and Lahore (the last 2 are on this quiz)

So no.

+3
Level 43
Mar 1, 2021
That doesn't matter
+6
Level 63
Mar 28, 2021
When people try to typein la las vegas, lahore, and lagos will show up
+2
Level 67
Apr 25, 2024
*When people try to type in Las Vegas, Lahore, or Lagos, LA will show up
+3
Level 48
May 1, 2021
Can we also have KL instead of Kuala Lumpur? No one really calls it the latter
+3
Level 20
Nov 21, 2020
I got 98 on my first try but I still missed Beijing.
+2
Level 35
Nov 23, 2020
I cant believe I completed the quiz with1:58 left!
+2
Level 20
Nov 23, 2020
I got 2:12 left.I have 6 minutes left until I reach the chinese cities
+2
Level 60
Dec 15, 2020
97, missed 1 chinese, 1 indian, and 1 indonesian
+3
Level 49
Dec 30, 2020
78, missed a majority of Chinese cities
+2
Level 54
Jan 2, 2021
95. Missed 4 Chinese, 1 Indonesian
+4
Level 47
Jan 30, 2021
most of the US cities are by far too big in this list....
+4
Level 75
Apr 25, 2024
Classic city proper vs urban area issue we always get on Jetpunk. When a quiz says in the caveats "urban area" the numbers will always be huge bcz of the way "city" limits are stretched to include ALL urban buildup around the core city. Check the wikipedia pages on the US's CSA and MSA city limits and populations and you'll see for yourself that these are official numbers.
+2
Level 50
Feb 15, 2021
Hanoi has a population of 8 Million!!
+3
Level 78
Feb 28, 2021
According to the source, Hanoi is 4,025,000 - not big enough for the quiz.
+1
Level 57
Sep 25, 2024
who's gonna tell him
+2
Level 83
Feb 25, 2021
Is SJK no longer accepted for Sri Lanka's capital?
+8
Level 87
Feb 28, 2021
This quiz is asking for the urban areas. SJK, or "Kotte" is considered a satellite city to the Columbo urban area.
+2
Level 63
Feb 28, 2021
great, thanks for updating the quiz!
+3
Level 69
Feb 28, 2021
I finally got 100% on this quiz yesterday, and now it's updated. The timing...
+2
Level 90
Mar 1, 2021
99/100 and beaten by 23.1% of people. Wow, people on jetpunk really know their big cities.
+3
Level 60
Mar 10, 2021
Where'd you get ur sources? Very Inaccurate quiz
+12
Level 54
Mar 13, 2021
So inaccurate that you can't even provide an example.
+2
Level 25
Mar 10, 2021
got 92! I got all but Pune, Bandung, Surabaya, Shantou, Wenzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Qingdao
+3
Level 25
Mar 10, 2021
lol I can't believe I missed Nanjing, I've heard of that city many times
+1
Level 54
Jan 31, 2022
Well, a lot of Chinese cities are missed. So this has to be genuine.
+4
Level 44
Mar 20, 2021
There is absolutely no way that Hefei is bigger than Dalian
+2
Level 60
Oct 6, 2021
there is a way
+2
Level 74
Apr 5, 2021
only missed hefei :(
+5
Level 28
Apr 18, 2021
Respect to the people who got all the Chinese cities. I hope to be there one day.
+1
Level 66
May 9, 2021
I want to type-in Bhopal,but I got Belo Horizonte,actually,I don't know this before...

How funny!

+2
Level 55
May 17, 2021
in your map, HEFEI in China is dotted wrongly. In reality, Hefei is west of Nanjing. In your map, it´s norwest of Nanjing.
+1
Level 37
Jul 13, 2021
99%... missed Shantou :(
+3
Level 90
Oct 8, 2021
Same here. I seem to frequently miss Shantou. Maybe I'll make a special effort to remember it next time.
+1
Level 90
Mar 20, 2024
Got it this time!
+1
Level 52
Jun 11, 2025
Thanks I was about to do the same
+6
Level 94
Aug 17, 2021
Points to note about using the urban area: Of the big two Tokyo metro area is actually only around 14 million and the wider area used here covers the same area as the whole of Maryland; none of the sub cities would make the list on their own; Guangzhou/Shenzhen is also clearly on the list with about 23M in their metro areas but also has the sub-cities of Foshan and Dongguan at around 7M each.

Suzhou would also make the list at about 11M but makes sense to be included with Shanghai as a large number commute in both directions and they are going to open a metro line to connect them fairly soon.

No other agglomeration on the list has a satellite/sub-city which would make the list in its own right. However of the others: Johannesburg seems to be less than half the city itself (with 6M in East Rand West Rand and Pretoria); Singapore and Detroit both include areas in other countries; and Shantou, Dubai, Guadalajara, Wenzhou and Taipei would not make the list excluding satellite cities.

+1
Level 94
Aug 17, 2021
Not complaining, just pointing out some hopefully interesting nuggets from using this methodology.
+1
Level 56
Sep 24, 2021
I am very close now, only missed 3 of the Chinese cities to get 100%... one day :D
+2
Level 63
Oct 4, 2021
why is Hong Kong grayed out?
+2
Level 63
Sep 11, 2022
...in dark mode
+2
Level 57
Oct 6, 2021
Most obvious one I missed was Taipei, didn't notice it out of the sea of other dots in and around China
+2
Level 47
Nov 16, 2021
You cant count guangzhou and shenzhen together, they are both tier one cities
+2
Level 54
Jan 31, 2022
I don't think so.

As far as I know, the area around the Pearl River delta is to be combined into a single megacity. And this is what I found on the web.

*Called the “Turn The Pearl River Delta Into One” scheme, the plan will effectively merge Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, Huizhou, Zhaoqing, Jiangmen, Zhongshan, and Zhuhai into a single megacity with a geographical size larger than Switzerland. *

Whereas, some cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen are already combined.

+1
Level 47
Nov 16, 2021
Mumbai urban area population is 42 million and delhi is 200 000 less than mumbai, I sat down and added them up together
+3
Level 61
Nov 30, 2021
9 cities in India and 12 in USA? Something doesn't add up....
+2
Level 54
Jan 31, 2022
Exactly...
+2
Level 48
Dec 5, 2021
I think Busan should be added, it has 8.6 million people for it's metro area
+1
Level 54
Jan 31, 2022
I think the location of Hefei is a little towards the southwest. On this map, it's in the place of Bengbu(on the original map).
+2
Level 45
Jan 31, 2022
is it just me or did shantou just not exist until this quiz
+1
Level 64
Mar 6, 2024
i was thinking the same thing lol
+1
Level 53
Mar 5, 2022
I think citypopulation.de's website has been updated for 2022 data. Look here.
+1
Level 37
Apr 22, 2022
all of them with 5:11 left
+1
Level 60
Jun 7, 2022
92/100, china stumped me
+2
Level 52
Jun 11, 2022
100 on the first try means I really need to get a life
+1
Level 73
Jul 29, 2024
You got a quizzing life :)
+1
Level 48
Jun 17, 2022
What are the two grey dots in western Germany?
+10
Level 81
Aug 15, 2022
I'm guessing one is the loosely defined "Ruhr Area," greyed out because there's no single urban center, and the other is probably Bielefeld, greyed out because it doesn't really exist.
+1
Level 60
Dec 20, 2022
4:31 don't know if it is a great time but proud to know them all.

it's a second try because first try i forgot changsha zhengzhou and philadelphia, i freaking forgot philadelphia.

+1
Level 49
Jan 23, 2023
Anyone gonna put the answers on?
+1
Level 63
Feb 10, 2023
100/100 in 5 mins & 23 seconds. Easy, peesy, lemon squeezy for a swot like me.
+1
Level 28
Mar 7, 2023
Ha, I could've sworn that Belo Horizonte was closer to the coast. Other than that, I got most of them besides a couple of obscure Chinese cities
+1
Level 71
Mar 27, 2023
Why does Surat seem to be in the middle of the ocean?
+1
Level 43
May 21, 2023
I tried typing in the capital of Iraq, but it auto-corrected to Belo Horizonte. Still works.
+4
Level 62
Sep 23, 2023
Accept Narrm for Melbourne?
+2
Level 60
Mar 4, 2024
surely not
+1
Level 71
Oct 29, 2024
Should. And don't call me Shirley.
+1
Level 74
Jan 23, 2025
There has never been a city called "Narm"
+1
Level 26
Feb 14, 2024
95, missed Bandung, Zhengzhou, Hefei, Wenzhou and Shantou. Dangit.
+1
Level 44
Feb 22, 2024
82/100. Missed Kuala Lumpur, Washington-Baltimore, Accra, and Dar es Salaam. tried typing in addis ababa, but I realized what the city was too late.
+2
Level 57
Mar 3, 2024
The 71 mil figure you have for guangzhou is the Greater Bay Area which includes Hong Kong. So you have honkong counted twice here
+3
Level ∞
Mar 3, 2024
Nope.
+1
Level 46
Mar 4, 2024
Is there a particular reason the California Bay Area area is labelled as San Francisco rather than San Jose? I know SF is the more famous city of the two, but SJ is the larger of the two by about 100K.
+9
Level ∞
Mar 4, 2024
Same reason Manila is not labeled as "Quezon City". Because it would make us look ridiculous.
+4
Level 47
Mar 12, 2024
I know this has already been brought up, but if you are going to accept Philly for Philadelphia and SF for San Francisco you have to accept LA for Los Angeles. I live in California, everyone calls Los Angeles LA and I rarely hear anyone refer to San Francisco as SF, usually Frisco, San Fran or the Bay.
+6
Level 93
Apr 3, 2024
The difference is no other cities start with 'SF' or 'Philly,' whereas there's many cities (even one on this list) that start with 'La.' That's probably why it's not an accepted type-in.
+1
Level 52
Apr 5, 2024
Ok, im not an american but…

I missed NYC.

+1
Level 18
May 25, 2024
Your mind always goes directly to the ones you know are difficult to remember. Then you don't get 100%, and you look at the results and every time an obvious one pops into your head, you feel dumber, and dumber.. and dumber........ and dumber......................... and ddduuuuuummmmbbbeeerrrr..........................................................................................................................
+1
Level 18
May 25, 2024
actually
+1
Level 60
Jul 10, 2024
84/100 :3
+1
Level 84
Sep 6, 2024
82. Must brush up on the cities of China.
+3
Level 71
Oct 10, 2024
My grandpa lived some of his teens in Pune (then spelt Poona I think) and would talk about it like it was a small town. Little did I know it was among the post populated cities in the world. I asked him about it after taking this quiz and he told me "I meant in comparison to Bombay".
+1
Level 65
Nov 13, 2024
Got all of them, first try :) Interestingly enough I actually visited the least guessed city, Taiyuan.
+1
Level 28
Feb 4, 2025
forgot hong kong..*facepalm*
+1
Level 58
Feb 5, 2025
Sheesh, Sydney and Melbourne must be almost 101 and 102
+1
Level 85
May 12, 2025
+2
Level 26
Mar 7, 2025
I'm curious why Washington and Baltimore are counted in the same category? they're almost 2 hours apart