World's largest municipalities by population

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File:Kitahiroshima city limit sign.jpg

The City proper starts and ends at its city limits

This is a non-exhaustive list of the world's most populous municipalities, defined according to the concept of city proper. This list is limited to clear, unambiguously defined political jurisdictions which fall under the definition of municipality in the general sense of the word. For this list "City proper" follows the definition of a locality with legally fixed boundaries and an administratively recognized urban status that is usually characterized by some form of local government. For this list, "Municipality" is defined as an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory, it commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. A municipality is typically governed by a mayor and a city council or municipal council. This list does not include metropolitan areas which may include multiple cities under the jurisdiction of separate city councils which do not come under a common government of that metropolitan area. The list does not count statistical areas. This list contains some of the world's most populous urban municipal units and their resident population.

Municipality

Municipality can take on many meanings throughout the world. In the English language, "municipality" is a generic term for any type of urban unit. In some countries, a municipality is the smallest administrative subdivision to have its own democratically elected representative leadership. In other countries, such as China, a direct-controlled municipality is a city with equal status to a province. Some municipalities, such as Monaco or Singapore are sovereign states. For the purpose of this list, municipality is used in its strictly generic sense, i.e. as "a primarily urban political unit having corporate status and usually powers of self-government."

City

Most of the entries in this list will be generally recognized as cities. This list of municipalities has become necessary because there is a debate whether certain cities should be called cities. Some examples follow.

Tokyo is a prefecture-level city in Japan that is governed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government It itself contains twenty-three special wards (特別区 -ku), which translate themselves to "cities" Tokyo also includes 26 more cities (市 -shi), five towns (町 -chō or machi), and eight villages (村 -son or -mura), each of which has a local government. Numerous outlying islands, which extend as far as 1850 km from central Tokyo, belong to Tokyo. All are part of Tokyo proper.
China has four direct-controlled municipalities with a status equal to a province: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing. These cities, especially Chongqing, can be quite large. The same applies to the sub-provincial cities and the prefecture-level cities of China.
List of cities by surface area shows cities that are larger than many countries. It is debatable whether these large areas should be called cities or municipalities.
From Singapore to Vatican City, there are several cities that are sovereign countries.

A city can be loosely or narrowly defined, depending on the respective country. This can create controversy. This list therefore uses the more generic term "municipality." In most cases, its entries will be understood as cities.

State or province

Vienna has the rank of an Austrian federal state

Quite often, the status of a city or municipality can be elevated to the level of a state or province. Tokyo is a prefecture-level city in Japan, as it has been mentioned above. The direct-controlled municipalities of China have a similar rank. The Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in North Korea, the Republic of Korea in South Korea, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Vietnam also adopt this concept. Other examples can be found throughout the world. Vienna has the rank of an Austrian state, Geneva and Basel-Stadt have the rank of Swiss cantons. Germany has several cities with the rank of a state: Hamburg, Bremen, and Berlin. Washington, D.C. is a federally administered municipality of the United States. To an outsider, it is sometimes challenging to decide whether the entity can still be called a municipality, or should rather be called a province or state.

One attempt is to determine whether the entity is divided into sub-units with their own government, in which case the entity would not longer be treated as a municipality. This concept fails, because many bona fide cities/municipalities have such subdivisions. For instance, the German city-states Hamburg, Bremen, and Berlin are divided in districts with some form of a government. Berlin has Bezirke (districts) with their own mayor and borough council. The 16 boroughs of Mexico City have significant autonomy, and their heads of government are elected. The wards of Tokyo have their own mayor. This list leaves the final determination of what is called a city or municipality to the sovereign states and the people who live there. If the entity is defined (in its own language) as a municipality or city, then this list counts it as such. If two or more entities form a metropolitan area without a common government, the entities are counted separately. If in doubt, common sense prevails.

Data Sources

This list treats the population data issued by the statistical bureau of the respective municipality as the most reliable source. Next up are statistical data provided by the statistical organizations of the respective countries. If the count differs, the count by the municipality prevails. This list attempts to use data that is as up to date as possible. In countries where there is a difference between the "registered" and the "floating" population, this list recognizes the sum of both. The list does not recognize commuters. It is accepted and recognized that there can be considerable differences between the quality and precision of data. Most countries perform a census in regular intervals, commonly every 10 years. Some countries provide regular estimates, sometimes based on smaller samples (micro census). This list discourages the usage of independently compiled lists of city populations. These lists are sometimes unreliable or come to misleading results due to differing methodology. If no government data are available, third party sources may be used, but their usage should be noted in the comments section.

Principle

The reader should be aware that there is no "right" way to define a city or municipality. "City proper" is one of the different ways. Other methods can be similarly valid, and result in similarly valid lists that show the municipality under a different perspective. The principle of this list is that the definition of administrative boundaries is a matter of the sovereign states and countries. This list will not redraw borders. For the purpose of this list, a resident who lives within certain administrative boundaries counts as a resident of the municipality or city. As long as the administrative area is that of a bona fide municipality, this list will recognize its population as a whole, regardless of the size of the city or municipality. This list does not include metropolitan areas which may include multiple cities under the jurisdiction of separate city councils which do not come under a common government of that metropolitan area. For instance, Berlin and Brandenburg are separate, because they do not share a common government. For the pupose of this list, the whole Tokyo Metropolis is counted as a city proper, because is shares a common Metropolitan Government. As outlined in city proper, there can be diverging definitions of "city proper" from country to country, and for the purpose of different reports. For the sake of consistency, this list strives to use one common definition of "city proper", namely the area within the administrative boundaries. The list does not count statistical areas. The population density is calculated given the population and the surface area of the municipality. The list can be sorted. This list enumerates the population within the city limits of some of the world's most populous municipalities. This list is in no particular order. It can be sorted using the sort button in the column headers.

Municipalities by population (city proper)

This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries. Please observe the definition of the list when adding or editing entries.