The criteria of an urban area, specifically a built-up urban area or urban agglomeration, inherently differ from a metropolitan area. A metropolitan area functions as both a labour and housing market, encompassing a primarily built-up urban area (typically the biggest in the metropolitan region) and economically interconnected rural and smaller urban areas. The predominance of entries from the United States characterises this list.
While the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area boasts an impressive population of 38 million people, it is noteworthy that no urban area globally sprawls over a larger expanse than New York. Consequently, New York claims the title of the largest city in the world by land area.
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List of Biggest Cities in the World 2024
This compilation relies on data from Demographia's ‘World Urban Areas’ Report, providing a comprehensive array of demographic statistics for numerous cities worldwide. In addition to presenting population figures for various cities, the list also emphasises the largest cities based on land area.
| Rank | City | Geography | Population Estimate | Land Area (sq km) | Population Density |
| 1 | New York | United States | 21,396,000 | 11,344 | 1,886 |
| 2 | Boston-Providence | United States | 7,429,000 | 8,847 | 840 |
| 3 | Tokyo-Yokohama | Japan | 37,785,000 | 8,775 | 4,306 |
| 4 | Atlanta | United States | 5,702,000 | 7,402 | 770 |
| 5 | Los Angeles | United States | 15,587,000 | 6,918 | 2,253 |
| 6 | Moscow | Russia | 17,878,000 | 6,643 | 2,691 |
| 7 | Chicago | United States | 8,954,000 | 6,532 | 1,371 |
| 8 | Washington-Baltimore | United States | 7,853,000 | 5,600 | 1,402 |
| 9 | Houston | United States | 6,703,000 | 5,390 | 1,244 |
| 10 | Dallas-Fort Worth | United States | 6,979,000 | 5,307 | 1,315 |
| 11 | Philadelphia | United States | 5,795,000 | 4,916 | 1,179 |
| 12 | Guangzhou-Foshan | China | 27,119,000 | 4,543 | 5,970 |
| 13 | Shanghai | China | 24,042,000 | 4,333 | 5,549 |
| 14 | Beijing | China | 18,883,000 | 4,284 | 4,408 |
| 15 | Detroit | United States | 4,258,000 | 4,082 | 1,043 |
| 16 | Johannesburg | South Africa | 15,551,000 | 4,040 | 3,849 |
| 17 | Nagoya | Japan | 9,439,000 | 3,704 | 2,549 |
| 18 | Sao Paulo | Brazil | 21,486,000 | 3,649 | 5,888 |
| 19 | San Francisco-San Jose | United States | 6,844,000 | 3,634 | 1,883 |
| 20 | Charlotte | United States | 2,879,000 | 3,631 | 793 |
| 21 | Cleveland | United States | 2,871,000 | 3,608 | 796 |
| 22 | Jakarta | Indonesia | 35,386,000 | 3,546 | 9,980 |
| 23 | Buenos Aires | Argentina | 15,748,000 | 3,437 | 4,582 |
| 24 | Phoenix | United States | 4,617,000 | 3,235 | 1,428 |
| 25 | Miami | United States | 6,139,000 | 3,222 | 1,905 |
A noteworthy observation is that U.S. cities may not rival the burgeoning Asian metropolises in terms of population, yet they assert their dominance in land area. Impressively, eight out of the world's ten largest cities by land area are located in the United States.
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