Africa South Africa , South Africa's second-largest metro by population
South Africa has eight metro areas.
Metropolitan municipalities (Category A municipalities), as defined in SA, are the most developed areas of the country, and execute all the functions of local government for a
city or
conurbation. They are created by provincial governments. As per the country's
2022 census data, South Africa has five
metros (major urban areas) with a population of over four million residents, with the other three having a population of around one million.
Metropolitan municipalities (Category A municipalities), as defined in SA, are the most developed areas of the country, and execute all the functions of local government for a
city or
conurbation. They are created by provincial governments. The country's three branches of government are split over different cities.
Cape Town is the
legislative capital,
Pretoria the administrative capital, and
Bloemfontein the judicial capital. The table below shows all South African metro areas, ranked by population size.
Asia East Asia China Since 2000,
China's cities have expanded at an average rate of 10% annually. It is estimated that China's urban population will increase by 292 million people by 2050, The country's urbanization rate increased from 17.4% to 46.6% between 1978 and 2009. Between 150 and 200 million
migrant workers work part-time in the major cities, returning home to the countryside periodically with their earnings. China has more cities with one million or more long-term residents than any other country, including the three
global cities of
Beijing,
Hong Kong, and
Shanghai; by 2025, the country will be home to 221 cities with over a million inhabitants. the figures below include only long-term residents.
Japan In
Japan, urbanized areas are defined as
contiguous areas of densely inhabited districts (DIDs) using
census enumeration districts as units with a density requirement of .
South Korea Seoul is the largest urban area in
South Korea.
Taiwan Greater Taipei is the largest urban area in
Taiwan.
South Asia Bangladesh In
Bangladesh, there are total 532 urban areas, which are divided into three categories. Those are
City Corporation,
Municipal Corporation (Pourasova) and
Upazila town. Among those urban areas,
Dhaka is the largest city by population and area, with a population of 19.10 million. In
Bangladesh, there are total 11
City Corporations and 329
Municipal Corporations and 203
Small towns, which serves as the center for
Upazilas. According to 2011 population census,
Bangladesh has an urban population of 28%, with a growth rate of 2.8%. At this growth rate, it is estimated that the urban population of
Bangladesh will reach 79 million or 42% of total population by 2035.
India For the Census of
India 2011, the definition of urban area is a place having a minimum population of 5,000 of density or higher, and 75% plus of the male working population employed in non-agricultural activities. Places administered by a municipal corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee are automatically considered urban areas. The Census of India 2011 also defined the term "urban agglomeration" as an integrated urban area consisting of a core town together with its "outgrowths" (contiguous suburbs).
Pakistan In
Pakistan, an area is a major
city and
municipality if it has more than 100,000 inhabitants according to census results. Cities include adjacent
cantonments. Urbanisation in
Pakistan has increased since the time of independence and has several different causes. The majority of southern Pakistan's population lives along the
Indus River. Karachi is its most populous city. In the northern half of the country, most of the population lives in an arc formed by the cities of
Lahore,
Faisalabad,
Rawalpindi,
Islamabad,
Gujranwala,
Sialkot,
Gujrat,
Jhelum,
Sargodha,
Sheikhupura,
Nowshera,
Mardan and
Peshawar. During 1990–2008, city dwellers made up 36% of Pakistan's population, making it the most urbanised nation in
South Asia. Furthermore, 50% of Pakistanis live in towns of 5,000 people or more. Karachi is the most populated city in
Pakistan closely followed by Lahore according to the
2017 Census.
Southeast Asia Philippines Manila. In 2020, 54 percent of the
Philippine population lived in urban areas. With an estimated population of 16.3 million,
Metro Manila is the most populous metropolitan area in the
Philippines and the
11th in the world. However, the greater urban area is the
5th largest in the world with a population of 20,654,307 people (2010 estimate).
Singapore As an island
city-state, about 5.6 million people live and work within . With 64
islands and islets,
Singapore Island makes up the largest urban area in the country. According to the
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the country has the highest urbanised population in
Southeast Asia, with 100 percent of its population living in an urban area. The
Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is responsible for the urban
land-use planning, which designates land use and
urban density of the country. The country is divided into 5
regions for planning purposes by the URA, even though as a city state Singapore is defined as a single continuous urban area. It is further subdivided into 55
urban planning areas, which acts as the boundaries of
planned towns within the country.
Thailand Bangkok is the largest urban area in
Thailand.
Vietnam In
Vietnam, there are six types of urban areas: • Special urban area (2 municipalities):
Hanoi and
Ho Chi Minh City. • Type I urban area (18 provincial cities and 3 municipalities):
Long Xuyên,
Pleiku,
Mỹ Tho,
Thủ Dầu Một,
Bắc Ninh,
Biên Hòa,
Hải Dương,
Thanh Hóa,
Hạ Long,
Việt Trì,
Thái Nguyên,
Nam Định,
Vũng Tàu,
Buôn Ma Thuột,
Đà Lạt,
Quy Nhơn,
Nha Trang,
Huế,
Vinh,
Cần Thơ,
Đà Nẵng and
Hải Phòng. • Type II urban area (21 provincial cities and 1 district):
Châu Đốc,
Đồng Hới,
Uông Bí,
Bắc Giang,
Ninh Bình,
Bạc Liêu,
Bà Rịa,
Thái Bình,
Rạch Giá,
Cà Mau,
Phan Rang–Tháp Chàm,
Tuy Hòa,
Phan Thiết,
Vĩnh Yên,
Lào Cai and
Phú Quốc. • Type III urban area (31 provincial cities and 12 towns). • Type IV urban area (35 towns and 35 townships). • Type V urban area (586 townships and 54 communes).
Europe Finland indicating the beginning of an urban area in Finland
As in other Nordic countries, an urban area ( in
Finnish) in Finland must have a building at least every and at least 200 people. To be considered a
town or a
city () for statistical purposes, an urban area must have at least 15,000 people. This is not to be confused with the city / town designation used by
municipalities.
France In
France, an urban area (''Fr:
aire d'attraction d'une ville) is a zone encompassing an area of built-up growth (called an "urban unit" (unité urbaine) – close in definition to the North American urban area) and its commuter belt (couronne''). Americans would find the
INSEE definition of the urban area to be similar to their
metropolitan area. The
largest cities in France, in terms of urban area population (2017), are
Paris (12,628,266),
Lyon (2,323,221),
Marseille (1,760,653),
Toulouse (1,360,829),
Bordeaux (1,247,977),
Lille (1,191,117),
Nice (1,006,201),
Nantes (972,828),
Strasbourg (790,087) and
Rennes (733,320).
Germany of downtown
Berlin.
Germany has a number of large
cities. The largest
conurbation is the
Rhine-Ruhr region (11 million ), including
Düsseldorf (the capital of
North Rhine-Westphalia),
Cologne,
Bonn,
Dortmund,
Essen,
Duisburg, and
Bochum.
Netherlands Amsterdam. The
Netherlands is the
30th-most densely populated country in the world, with —or if only the land area is counted. The
Randstad is the country's largest
conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam,
Rotterdam,
The Hague, and
Utrecht. The Randstad has a population of 7 million inhabitants and is the
6th largest metropolitan area in Europe.
Norway Norway defines urban areas ("tettsteder")
similarly to the other Nordic countries. Unlike in Denmark and Sweden, the distance between each building has to be of less than 50 m, although exceptions are made due to parks, industrial areas, rivers, and similar. Groups of houses less than 400 m from the main body of an urban area are included in the urban area.
Poland In
Poland, official "urban" population figures simply refer to those localities which have the status of towns (
miasta). The "rural" population is that of all areas outside the boundaries of these towns. This distinction may give a misleading impression in some cases, since some localities with only village status may have acquired larger and denser populations than many many smaller towns with most excessive example of
Poznań, most spread urban area of the country with population of the city app. 534 thousand and
metropolitan area around 1 million inhabitants. On the other hand, the
Katowice urban area with numerous large and medium cities covers 1,468 km and has above 2 million people. The
metropolitan areas in Poland are the biggest urban zones (e.g.
Katowice metropolitan area,
Łódź metropolitan area and
Szczecin metropolitan area) and have great impact on the rural surroundings, as it is around
Lublin,
Radom,
Kielce,
Tarnów and
Białystok.
Russia , the capital and largest city of
Russia Moscow, the capital and
largest city of
Russia, has a population estimated at 12.4 million residents within the city limits, while over 17 million residents in the urban area, and over 20 million residents in the
Moscow Metropolitan Area. It is among the
world's largest cities, being the
most populous city entirely within
Europe, the
most populous urban area in
Europe,
Saint Petersburg, the cultural capital, is the second-largest city, with a population of roughly 5.4 million inhabitants. Other major urban areas are
Yekaterinburg,
Novosibirsk,
Kazan,
Nizhny Novgorod, and
Chelyabinsk.
Spain Spain is a very highly urbanized country.
Madrid is its largest urban area. The Southern and Eastern coasts with
Barcelona,
Valencia and
Málaga are more urbanised than the Northern and Western ones.
Sweden Urban areas in Sweden (
tätorter) are statistically defined localities, totally independent of the administrative subdivision of the country. There are 1,956 such localities in
Sweden, with a population ranging from 200 to 1,372,000 inhabitants.
United Kingdom in downtown
London. In 2013 the
United Kingdom's
Office for National Statistics (ONS) published
2011 Built-up Areas – Methodology and Guidance which sets out its definition of a
built-up area (BUA) as an area of built-up land of at least , separated from other settlements by at least . For 2011 census data there are 5,493 built-up areas, of which 501 are divided into
built-up area sub-divisions (BUASD) for which data is also available. Each built-up area is named algorithmically, using Ordnance Survey place-name data. The ONS has produced census results from urban areas since 1951, since 1981 based upon the extent of irreversible urban development indicated on
Ordnance Survey maps. The definition is an extent of at least 20 ha and at least 1,500 census residents. Separate areas are linked if less than 200 m (220 yd) apart. Included are transportation features. The UK has five Urban Areas with a population over a million and a further sixty nine with a
population over one hundred thousand.
North America Canada According to
Statistics Canada, an urban area in
Canada is an area with a population of at least 1,000 people where the density is no fewer than . If two or more urban areas are within of each other by road, they are merged into a single urban area, provided they do not cross
census metropolitan area or
census agglomeration boundaries. area of
Toronto. In the
Canada 2011 Census, Statistics Canada redesignated urban areas with the new term "
population centre"; the new term was chosen in order to better reflect the fact that urban vs. rural is not a strict division, but rather a continuum within which several distinct settlement patterns may exist. For example, a community may fit a strictly statistical definition of an urban area, but may not be commonly thought of as "urban" because it has a smaller population, or functions socially and economically as a suburb of another urban area rather than as a self-contained urban entity, or is geographically remote from other urban communities. Accordingly, the new definition set out three distinct types of population centres: small (population 1,000 to 29,999), medium (population 30,000 to 99,999) and large (population 100,000 or greater). There were 2,646 urban areas identified by the Census Bureau for 2020. 511 of these had a population of 50,000 or more. For the 2000 and 2010 censuses, the Census Bureau differentiated between two kinds of urban areas: urbanized areas and urban clusters. The term
urbanized area denoted an urban area of 50,000 or more people. Urban areas under 50,000 people were called
urban clusters. Urbanized areas were first delineated in the United States in the 1950 census, while urban clusters were added in the 2000 census. The distinction between urbanized areas and urban clusters was removed for the 2020 census. The concept of Urbanized Areas as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau is often used as a more accurate gauge of the size of a city, since in different cities and states the lines between city borders and the urbanized area of that city are often not the same. For example, the city of
Greenville, South Carolina has a city population just over 68,000 and an urbanized area population of around 400,000, while
Greensboro, North Carolina has a city population just over 285,000 and an urbanized area population of around 300,000 — meaning that Greenville is actually "larger" for some intents and purposes, but not for others, such as taxation, local elections, etc. In the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's
natural resources inventory, urban areas are officially known as
developed areas or urban and built-up areas. Such areas include cities, ethnic villages, other built-up areas of more than 10 ac (4 ha), industrial sites, railroad yards, cemeteries, airports, golf courses, shooting ranges, institutional and public administration sites, and similar areas. The 1997 national resources inventory placed over 98,000,000 ac (40,000,000 ha) in this category, an increase of 25,000,000 ac (10,000,000 ha) since 1982.
Oceania Australia The
Australian Bureau of Statistics refers to urban areas as Urban Centres, which it generally defines as population clusters of 1,000 or more people. Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world, with more than 50% of the population residing in Australia's three biggest urban centres. There are four classes of urban area: major urban areas (population 100,000+), large urban areas (population 30,000–99,999), medium urban areas (population 10,000–29,999) and small urban areas (population 1,000–9,999). As of 2021, there are 7 major urban areas, 13 large urban areas, 22 medium urban areas and 136 small urban areas. Urban areas are reclassified after each
New Zealand census, so population changes between censuses does not change an urban area's classification.
South America Argentina Buenos Aires. Argentina is highly urbanized. The ten largest metropolitan areas account for half of the population, and fewer than one in ten live in rural areas. About 3 million people live in Buenos Aires City and the
Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area totals around 15 million, making it one of the largest urban areas in the world, with a population of 18 million all up.
Córdoba has around 1.5 million people living in the urban area, while
Rosario,
Mendoza and
Tucumán have around 1.2 million inhabitants each have at least 500,000 people each.
Brazil Chile Chile is highly urbanized. The largest urban area in the country is its capital,
Santiago. ==See also==