World City Populations 1975 - 2050

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• Analysis

The Global Urban Transformation

This map visualises the population of the world's urban agglomerations between 1975 to 2050, covering a period of unprecedented urban growth in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, followed by a generally more stable projection for urban populations for the next 25 years. In 1950 just 20 per cent of the world’s 2.5 billion people lived in cities. Following many decades of urbanization, cities are in 2025 home to 45 per cent of the world’s 8.2 billion people, more than double the proportion in 1950. The projection is for 48.3 per cent of the world's population to be living in cities by 2050 (these figures are based on the UN's new methodology with a three-way classification of settlements into cities, towns and rural areas, hence lower city proportions than measured previously).

In this interactive map the circles are proportional to urban agglomeration populations in 1975, 2000, 2025 and 2050. Move your mouse over cities to explore their detailed dynamics. Data is from the UN World Urban Propospects 2025. The technique of overlaying proportional circles to show population change over time was first developed in a static map at LSE Cities Urban Age by Guido Robazza.

The UN World Urbanization Prospects 2025 uses an updated harmonised global methodology for defining urban agglomerations as contiguous areas of high density urban land (above 1,500 persons per km2) with a population of at least fifty thousand. Previous versions of World Urbanization Prospects relied on more inconsistent national adminstrative boundaries, and the new methodology results in several changes to the ranking of the world's largest urban agglomerations. Tokyo (click on the city link to focus the map), with a population of 33.4 million is 2025, is often measured as the world's most populous city, but in this dataset Jakarta, current population a gigantic 41.9 million, superseded Tokyo in 2010. This change appears to be due to updated demographic data, and that Jakarta's administrative boundary does not cover its full metropolitan region. The prediction for 2050 is for Dhaka and Jakarta to become the first urban agglomerations to exceed 50 million people.

Asia has ovewhelmingly accounted for the world's recent urban growth. In 2025, 11 of the top 12 largest urban agglomerations are in South, East and South-East Asia, with cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Jakarta experiencing rapid urban growth. The next 25 years however show a more stable urban picture, with China starting to follow Japan and South Korea with an ageing and more static population. For example, Shanghai gained a massive 15.5 million people between 2000 and 2025, but this growth is predicted to slow to 5.5 million between 2025-2050. Some cities in West China such as Chongqing, Wuhan and Chengdu are predicted to lose population between 2025-2050.

Population change in India's largest urban agglomerations follows a similar pattern. New Delhi gained 12.3 million residents between 2000-2025 to reach 30.2 million people, but the population growth prediction for the next 25 years is lower at 3.7 million. A similar levelling off can also be seen in the Indian megacities of Mumbai and Kolkata. Urban growth is higher however in India's South Asian neighbours. Dhaka in Bangladesh continues with very high rates of growth. It is currently the world's second largest urban agglomeration at 36.6 million in 2025, and may become the world's largest urban agglomeration in 2050. Pakistan shows a similar picture, with Karachi predicted to gain 11.5 million people between 2025-2050.

The highest proportional rates of urban growth are in Africa, where many countries are much earlier in their demographic transition. Luanda is set to gain 8.9 million people between 2025-2050. Dar es Salaam and Addis Ababa are predicted to both become megacities of over 10 million in the next 25 years.

Find Out More

Analysis page- Query the city data and select cities according to their population and growth during different time periods.

UN World Urbanisation Prospects- The dataset used to make this visualisation, with detailed reporting on the future of the world's cities.

Blog Post about this Visualisation- more information about World Urbanization Prospects and how this visualisation was created.