Although U.S.-based demographers did not look beyond the U.S. and Canada, there exists roughly the same concept and structures worldwide, namely "long chains of roughly continuous metropolitan areas". A 2005 study by The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech attempted to create strict, contemporary criteria for definition as a megalopolis or megaregion; within the United States, the criteria included cultural links, commuting patterns, a contiguous regional configuration, and a population within a precisely defined area of at least 10 million.[1] The study identified 10 areas in the U.S. that would meet this strict definition of a present or emergent megalopolis.
The concept exists conceptually in other nations, though not always called by the U.S. term megalopolis. The following is a list of dense, built up areas of multiple large cities each with suburbs that coalesce into one large urban zone or corridor, with few or little rural areas in between. Like U.S. megalopolises, they often have a strong interlinked ground transportation backbone (rail, highway, etc.) aiding in their growth. In nighttime aerial photographs, these areas are artificially lit and stand out from their surroundings. They can be thought of as a worldwide (non-U.S. centric) extension of the term megalopolis.
This is a list of continuously built up areas. Population estimates are a general guide, but the criteria are not meant for comparison. Significant variation applies when comparing chains of metropolitan areas ? as there can be several metropolitan areas definitions even for the same city ? and methods differ from city to city, nation to nation, and year to year.
Quebec City?Windsor Corridor (17 million - Canadian population only; >25 million if U.S. border cities within 100 km included)
The Gauteng City Region (PWV), which includes the urbanised portion of Gauteng Province (Johannesburg, Pretoria and the Vaal Triangle, with a population of over 10 million), and urban areas outside the province which are functionally linked, such as Witbank-Middelburg, Secunda, Rustenburg, and Potchefstroom-Klerksdorp, pushing the population up to between 15 and 20 million [3][4][5]
Istanbul?Bursa?Çanakkale, Turkey with at least 17 million people. This is an example of a transcontinental megalopolis and Istanbul is a transcontinental city, since both cover land in both Asia and Europe.
The Yangtze River Delta between southern Jiangsu province and northern Zhejiang, China could also be considered a megalopolis, though less developed compared to the Pearl River Delta. It contains at least 16 cities including Shanghai (over 15 million), Nanjing (6.4 million), Hangzhou (6.4 million), Ningbo (5.5 million), Nantong (7.7 million), Suzhou (6.1 million), Taizhou (5.5 million), Taizhou (5.0 million), Yangzhou (4.5 million), Wuxi (4.5 million), Shaoxing (4.4 million), Changzhou (3.5 million), Jiaxing (3.3 million), Zhenjiang (2.7 million), Huzhou (2.6 million) and Zhoushan (1 million). (Total 80 million)
The central Liaoning city cluster in China. Within 150 km from its center Shenyang (7.2 million), it has Fushun (3 million), Anshan (3.6 million), Benxi (1.5 million), Liaoyang (1.8 million), Yingkou (2.2 million), Panjin (1.2 million), and Tieling (3.4 million), with a total population of 23 million. And it can be further extended to Dalian (6.2 million), Fuxin (2 million) and Dandong (2.4 million). This area used to be the most industrialized region in China. It declined during 1980s-1990s, but in recent years, it rapidly revives.
The megalopolis of the Pacific coast is connected from the Greater Tokyo to Kyushu by the Shinkansen and the highway. The distance is 1,200km and is called the Taiheiyo Belt.
The Megalopolis of central Mexico was defined to be integrated by the metropolitan areas of Mexico City, Puebla, Cuernavaca, Toluca and Pachuca. The megalopolis of central Mexico is integrated by 173 municipalities (91 of the state of Mexico, 29 of the state of Puebla, 37 of the state of Tlaxcala, 16 of Morelos and 16 of Hidalgo) and the 16 boroughs of the Federal District,[7] with an approximate total population of almost 25 million people.
Studies by two U.S. universities ? Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech ? identify much of the southern two thirds of Florida as an emergent megalopolis, which the Virginia Tech study calls "Peninsula". It includes the core metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Melbourne, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Fort Myers, along with suburban and rural counties linked through economic and commuting patterns.[8][1] , the population of the region is 13.7 million.[1]
The I-85 Corridor in the Southeastern United States: the same pair of studies define this areas as an "emergent" megalopolis including the primary cities of Birmingham, Atlanta, Greenville, Spartanburg, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Durham and Raleigh.[9] Both studies refer to the area as the Piedmont megalopolis; the Georgia Tech survey defines the region narrowly, focusing on the urban, suburban and rural counties between Birmingham and Raleigh. The Virginia Tech study proposes a broader definition, which would also include Columbus, Macon, Huntsville, Augusta, Columbia, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Johnson City, Asheville and a number of smaller cities; the western extent of this definition is somewhat disconnected by the Appalachian mountain range. Both reports highlight the "emergent" nature of this possible megalopolis, noting comparatively low urban densities, but also noting a pattern in growth (in the individual, component urban areas) towards each other. , this region (as defined in the Virginia Tech study) has a population of 19 million [9][1].
California's Bay Area and Central Valley; this region, with a total population of 13 million, is referred to as NorCal in the Virginia Tech study, and includes the Bay Area, the Monterey area, and a sizable portion of California's Central Valley and Sierra foothills; the region (which largely corresponds to the most developed portions of the Sacramento and San Joaquin drainage basins) also extends eastward to include Carson City and Reno in Nevada. Apart from the Bay Area cities, core cities in this region would include Sacramento, Monterey, Stockton, Modesto, Salinas, Fresno and Reno, and are primarily linked by Interstates 5 and 80, and California's route 99[1].
The Northstar Corridor, which includes the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro area and the communities along I-94 and U.S. Route 10 between the St. Cloud metro area and Minneapolis-Saint Paul, including Elk River, Monticello, Big LakeClearwater, Clear Lake and the St. Cloud area. The corridor has a population of approximately 3.6 million and is one of the fastest-growing areas in the United States.
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