Jakarta has emerged as the world’s most populated city, surpassing Japan’s Tokyo, according to the UN’s World Urbanisation Prospects 2025 report. The Indonesian capital now hosts an estimated 42 million residents, placing it ahead of Dhaka, Bangladesh, with 37 million, and Tokyo with 33 million.
The shift comes after the UN adopted a new methodology that applies consistent global standards for defining cities, towns, and rural areas. Patrick Gerland, head of the UN’s population estimates section, said the updated approach offers “a more internationally comparable delimitation of urban areas” based on uniform population and geospatial criteria.
Global urbanisation continues to accelerate. In 1950, only 20% of the world’s 2.5 billion people lived in cities. Today, nearly half of the global population of 8.2 billion is urban, and by 2050, two-thirds of all population growth is expected to occur in cities.
The report notes the dramatic rise of megacities—those with more than 10 million people—from eight in 1975 to 33 in 2025. Nine of the world’s ten largest urban centres are in Asia.
Tokyo, though no longer at the top of the ranking, remains densely populated. Its 23 wards and surrounding municipalities now hold just over 14 million residents, driven largely by young people relocating for education and employment.
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