Skyline of Seoul at night
Aerial view of Greater Adelaide, the parklands serve as a barrier between the inner CBD and encompassing urban area
A satellite view of the U.S. Northeast megalopolis at night, the world's most economically productive megalopolis[1] with over 50 million residents, centered on New York City
Greater São Paulo at night, as seen from the International Space Station
Warsaw metropolitan area

An urban area[a] is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbanism, the term "urban area" contrasts to rural areas such as villages and hamlets. In urban sociology or urban anthropology, it often contrasts with natural environment.

The development of earlier predecessors of modern urban areas during the urban revolution of the 4th millennium BCE[2] led to the formation of human civilization and ultimately to modern urban planning, which along with other human activities such as exploitation of natural resources has led to a human impact on the environment.

Recent historical growth

Earth's land use in 2019, built-up area being estimated as 1.5 million square kilometers

In 1950, 764 million people (or about 30 percent of the world's 2.5 billion people) lived in urban areas. In 2009, the number of people living in urban areas (3.42 billion) surpassed the number living in rural areas (3.41 billion), and since then the world has become more urban than rural.[3] By 2014, it was 3.9 billion (or about 53 percent of the world's 7.3 billion people) that lived in urban areas. The change was driven by a combination of increased total population and increased percent of population living in urban areas.[4] This was the first time that the majority of the world's population lived in a city.[5] By that time a high estimate calculated up to 3.5 million square kilometers of land was urban, estimates ranging from 1% of global land area.[6][7]

In 2014 there were 7.3 billion people living on the planet,[8] of which the global urban population comprised 3.9 billion. The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs at that time predicted the urban population would occupy 68% of the world population by 2050, with 90% of that growth coming from Africa and Asia.[9]

Globally, urban areas more than doubled in size between 1992 to 2015, growing from 33 million hectares (Mha) to 71 Mha in 2015. This expansion consumed 24 Mha of some of the most fertile croplands, 3.3 Mha of forestlands and 4.6 Mha of shrubland.[10]

Urbanization

Urban land area
Urban areas with at least one million inhabitants in 2025

Urban areas are created and further developed by the process of urbanization. They are measured for various purposes, including analyzing population density and urban sprawl. Urban areas are generally found in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Japan, Australia, and many other countries where the urbanization rate is high.

Unlike an urban area, a metropolitan area includes not only the urban area, but also intervening rural land and satellite cities that are socio-economically connected to the urban area. The urban area serves as the core of a metropolitan area, typically by employment ties through commuting, with the urban area being the primary labor market.[11]

The concept of an "urban area" as used in economic statistics should not be confused with the concept of the "urban area" used in road safety statistics. This term was first created by Geographer Brian Manning. The last concept is also known as "built-up area in road safety". According to the definition by the Office for National Statistics, "Built-up areas are defined as land which is 'irreversibly urban in character', meaning that they are characteristic of a town or city. They include areas of built-up land with a minimum of 20 hectares (200,000 m2; 49 acres). Any areas [separated by] less than 200 metres [of non-urban space] are linked to become a single built-up area.[12]

Argentina and Japan are countries where the urbanization rate is over 90% while Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, and the United States are countries where the urbanization rate is between 80% and 90%, although within the U.S. state of New Jersey, the urbanization rate is 100%.[13]

Largest urban areas

There are two measures of the degree of urbanization of a population. The first, urban population, describes the percentage of the total population living in urban areas, as defined by the country. The second measure, rate of urbanization, describes the projected average rate of change of the size of the urban population over the given period of time. According to Urbanization by sovereign state article, the world as a whole is 56.2% urbanized, with roughly one-quarter of the countries reported as greater than 80% urbanized. Data is taken from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook estimates from 2020.[14]

According to Demographia, these are the urban areas in the world with a population exceeding 5,000,000 (as of 2025):[15]

Urban Area Country/ Region Population
1 Guangzhou-Shenzhen China 69,562,000
2 Shanghai-Changzhou China 45,115,000
3 Tokyo-Yokohama Japan 37,325,000
4 Jakarta Indonesia 36,877,000
5 Delhi India 33,224,000
6 Mumbai India 26,237,000
7 Manila Philippines 25,521,000
8 Dhaka Bangladesh 25,305,000
9 Seoul-Incheon South Korea 23,825,000
10 Mexico City Mexico 23,146,802
11 Cairo Egypt 22,684,000
12 Beijing China 22,363,000
13 São Paulo Brazil 21,747,000
14 Karachi Pakistan 21,258,000
15 Kolkata India 20,327,000
16 Bangkok Thailand 20,284,000
17 New York United States 19,426,449
18 Moscow Russia 19,100,000
19 Bangalore India 16,216,000
20 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam 16,024,000
21 Buenos Aires Argentina 15,933,000
22 Lagos Nigeria 15,283,000
23 Johannesburg-Pretoria South Africa 15,026,000
24 Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Japan 14,998,000
25 Istanbul Turkey 14,749,000
26 Lahore Pakistan 14,256,000
27 Tehran Iran 14,137,000
28 Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo 13,060,000
29 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 12,546,000
30 Hangzhou-Shaoxing China 12,422,000
31 Los Angeles United States 12,237,376
32 Shantou-Jieyang China 12,187,000
33 Tianjin China 12,095,000
34 Chennai India 11,950,000
35 Luanda Angola 11,892,000
36 Chongqing China 11,524,000
37 London United Kingdom 11,360,000
38 Paris France 11,282,000
39 Lima Peru 10,914,000
40 Bogota Colombia 10,734,000
41 Hyderabad India 10,101,000
42 Wuhan China 10,041,000
43 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 9,899,000
44 Taipei Taiwan 9,866,000
45 Nagoya Japan 9,617,000
46 Nanjing China 8,929,000
47 Dar es Salaam Tanzania 8,877,000
48 Chicago United States 8,790,000
49 Riyadh Saudi Arabia 8,589,000
50 Xi'an China 8,313,000
51 Chengdu China 8,040,000
52 Ahmedabad India 7,961,000
53 Addis Ababa Ethiopia 7,922,000
54 Shenyang-Fushun China 7,768,000
55 Onitsha Nigeria 7,756,000
56 Khartoum Sudan 7,677,000
57 Washington-Baltimore United States 7,636,000
58 Bandung Indonesia 7,490,000
59 Boston-Providence United States 7,375,000
60 Nairobi Kenya 7,264,000
61 Santiago Chile 7,192,000
62 Baghdad Iraq 7,160,000
63 Hong Kong Hong Kong 7,117,000
64 Dallas-Fort Worth United States 6,980,000
65 Madrid Spain 6,966,000
66 Pune India 6,944,000
67 Essen-Düsseldorf Germany 6,874,000
68 Zhengzhou China 6,860,000
69 Surabaya Indonesia 6,820,000
69 Yangon Myanmar 6,820,000
71 Houston United States 6,804,000
72 Amman Jordan 6,694,000
73 Quanzhou China 6,487,000
74 Abidjan Ivory Coast 6,461,000
75 Toronto Canada 6,400,000
76 San Francisco United States 6,376,000
77 Accra Ghana 5,785,000
78 Surat India 6,601,000
79 Xiamen-Zhangzhou China 6,237,000
80 Miami United States 6,129,000
81 Singapore Singapore 6,056,000
82 Kabul Afghanistan 6,009,000
83 Alexandria Egypt 5,916,000
84 Hefei China 5,875,000
85 St. Petersburg Russia 5,869,000
86 Qingdao China 5,806,000
87 Hanoi Vietnam 5,700,000
88 Philadelphia United States 5,697,000
89 Faisalabad Pakistan 5,650,000
90 Ankara Turkey 5,638,000
91 Milan Italy 5,631,000
92 Atlanta United States 5,495,000
93 Barcelona Spain 5,489,000
94 Jiddah Saudi Arabia 5,482,000
95 Taiyuan China 5,371,000
96 Belo Horizonte Brazil 5,368,000
97 Mashhad Iran 5,321,000
98 Rawalpindi-Islamabad Pakistan 5,203,000
99 Kumasi Ghana 5,192,000
100 Melbourne Australia 5,185,000
101 Dubai United Arab Emirates 5,097,000
102 Yaounde Cameroon 5,095,000
103 Kampala Uganda 5,074,000
104 Sydney Australia 5,037,000

Definitions

Presently, urban data are based on arbitrary definitions that vary from country to country and from year or census to the next, making them difficult to compare.

European countries[which?] define urbanized areas on the basis of urban-type land use, not allowing any gaps of typically more than 200 metres (220 yd), and use satellite imagery instead of census blocks to determine the boundaries of the urban area. In less-developed countries[which?], in addition to land use and density requirements, a requirement that a large majority of the population, typically 75%, is not engaged in agriculture and/or fishing is sometimes used.[citation needed]