Insider Monkey

30 of the Largest Cities in the World by Population

Rabeeta Abbas
11 min read

In This Article:

In this article, we list and discuss 30 of the Largest Cities in the World by Population. If you would like to skip our detailed discussion of the topic, you can go to 10 of the Largest Cities in the World by Population instead. 

As of 2024, there are over 8 billion people in the world. According to the United Nations, this number will see an increase of almost 2 billion by 2050, and by the mid-2080s, it can go as high as 10.4 billion people. In the mid-twentieth century, the total world population was nearly three times less than the number at which it stands today. In other words, Earth was home to 2.5 billion people in 1950, and nearly 70 years later, it grew to 8 billion. 

But what do these numbers really mean? The global population can sound like an abstract concept to many. So, to wrap your mind around the concept, think of a football stadium, like the Michigan Stadium. Officially, the stadium has the capacity to host a crowd of 107,601 people. Now, if you are one of the spectators at this stadium, and if all 107,601 people showed up, the seats would still be full. If there were a few thousand more spectators, it would be only slightly more congested. However, if you added another 100,000 more people, there would neither be any seats left nor any room for anyone to move, given that the ground is a no-go zone.

This addition of people beyond the capacity of the land is exactly what’s happening to the world right now, and why overpopulation is such an incredibly important issue. While the Earth is huge, its resources are slowly but surely running out. World Resources Institute estimates that food production will have to grow by 50% to sustain the global population by 2050. It might look easy on the surface -- that is until you realize that 40% of the land has become too degraded for agricultural production, and as the UN shows, 90% of the world's topsoil faces risk by 2050 due to unsustainable agricultural practices. You can read more on this in our piece on the 12 most advanced countries in agricultural technology.

While population growth is a global issue that needs to be carefully navigated, it is also an opportunity for some business owners. According to Michigan State University’s report on the subject, population growth is economic growth. So, whether it is a country or a city, a large population generally equates to an economically prosperous region. For example, in India — the world’s most populous country in 2024 — various multinational corporations have realized the potential of competing in the markets in India. These MNCs realize that the country has a high demand for goods and services, and they have a great opportunity to make profits out of it. Note that a country or a city with a large population not only provides a large consumer base but can also provide for an equally large workforce.

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