Indonesia’s capital has grow to be the world’s largest city with a population of 42 million – and counting.
Jakarta has taken the crown from Tokyo, after 25 years, amid slowing population growth.
UN researchers said today that the population of Dhaka, Bangladesh, also far exceeds Japan’s capital city.
But how does the brand new world’s largest city compare to London?
Jakarta’s population is much larger than London’s 9.8 million.
The capital has TransJakarta, often called the world’s longest and largest bus rapid transit system, which spans 251 km and serves over a million passengers every day.
Their equivalent of the London Underground is the Jakarta MRT and Jabodebek LRT, that are developing rapid train systems.
Resulting from Jakarta’s huge population, the town has faced major challenges as civilians routinely take care of traffic congestion, pollution and flooding.
In 2019, the federal government announced it could move the capital to Borneo, however the project is behind schedule and has struggled to draw investment.
The world is becoming increasingly urban, with cities now home to 45% of the planet’s 8.2 billion people, in accordance with UN research.
Since 1950, the number of individuals living in cities has greater than doubled.
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Waiting for 2050, two-thirds of worldwide population growth is projected to occur in cities, with a lot of the remaining third in towns.
Greater than half of the world’s megacities with 10 million or more individuals are in Asia, which can be home to nine of the ten most populous cities.
By 2050, the variety of megacities is anticipated to achieve 37, with Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Hajipur, and Kuala Lumpur among the many cities projected to surpass 10 million residents.
But for the previous world’s largest city, Tokyo, it has been facing slower population growth.
Government data showed that the variety of Japanese nationals fell by greater than 900,000 in 2024.
The town’s peak population was in 2009, with nearly 12.7 million, but has been on a gradual decline for 16 years.
Tokyo’s government has tried to fight this decline, including childbirth and housing subsidies to encourage fathers to take paternity leave.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t appear to have worked as, every year, fewer babies are born and more deaths are recorded.
In 2024, the variety of births recorded was the bottom amongst records going back to 1969, at a figure of 687,689.
Nearly 1.6 million deaths were recorded in the identical 12 months.
The world’s largest cities and their populations in 2025
- Jakarta, Indonesia – 42 million
- Dhaka, Bangladesh – 37 million
- Tokyo, Japan – 33 million
- Latest Delhi, India – 30 million
- Shanghai, China – 30 million
- Guangzhou, China – 28 million
- Cairo, Egypt – 26 million
- Manila, Philippines – 25 million
- Kolkata, India – 23 million
- Seoul, South Korea – 22 million
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