List of metropolitan areas by population

List of metropolitan areas by population

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List of metropolitan areas by population

27 metropolitan areas of at least 11 million people.

The question of which are the world's largest cities is a complex one, to which there is no single correct answer, simply because there are many different ways of defining a "city". One concept is the metropolitan area, which is based on the concept of a labor market area and is typically defined as an employment core (an area with a high density of available jobs) and the surrounding areas that have strong commuting ties to the core.

The following is a list of the twenty largest metropolitan areas in 2003 as defined by one source.^[1] As population figures are interpreted and presented differently according to different methods of data collection, definitions and sources, these numbers should be viewed as approximate. Data from other sources may be equally "valid", but differ due to being measured according to different criteria or taken from different census years.

Rank	Metropolitan area	Population	Area (km²)	Population Density (People/km²)
1	Tokyo	32,450,000	8,014	4,049
2	Seoul	20,550,000	5,076	4,048
3	Mexico City^[2]	20,450,000	7,346	2,784
4	New York City^[3]	19,750,000	17,884	1,104
5	Mumbai	19,200,000	2,350	8,170
6	Jakarta	18,900,000	5,100	3,706
7	São Paulo	18,850,000	8,479	2,223
8	Delhi	18,600,000	3,182	5,845
9	Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto	17,375,000	6,930	2,507
10	Shanghai	16,650,000	5,177	3,216
11	Metro Manila	16,300,000	2,521	6,466
12	Hong Kong-Shenzhen^[4]	15,800,000	3,051	5,179
13	Los Angeles	15,250,000	10,780	1,415
14	Kolkata	15,100,000	1,785	8,459
15	Moscow	15,000,000	14,925	1,005
16	Cairo	14,450,000	1,600	9,031
17	Buenos Aires	13,170,000	10,888	1,210
18	London	12,875,000	11,391	1,130
19	Beijing	12,500,000	6,562	1,905
20	Karachi	11,800,000	1,100	10,727