Jakarta is the new world’s largest city, overtaking Tokyo, which has held that title for many years (Picture: Getty Images)
Indonesia’s capital has become 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 new world’s largest city compare to London?
London has a significantly smaller population size (Picture: Nick Brundle Photography/Getty Images)
Jakarta’s population is far 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 one million passengers daily.
Their equivalent of the London Underground is the Jakarta MRT and Jabodebek LRT, which are developing rapid train systems.
Due to Jakarta’s huge population, the city has faced major challenges as civilians routinely deal with traffic congestion, pollution and flooding.
In 2019, the government announced it would move the capital to Borneo, but the project is behind schedule and has struggled to attract investment.
The world is becoming increasingly urban, with cities now home to 45% of the planet’s 8.2 billion people, according to UN research.
Tens of millions of people call the Indonesian capital home (Picture: Getty Images)
Since 1950, the number of people living in cities has more than doubled.
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Looking ahead to 2050, two-thirds of global population growth is projected to occur in cities, with most of the remaining third in towns.
More than half of the world’s megacities with 10 million or more people are in Asia, which is also home to nine of the 10 most populous cities.
By 2050, the number of megacities is expected to reach 37, with Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Hajipur, and Kuala Lumpur among the cities projected to surpass 10 million residents.
But for the former world’s largest city, Tokyo, it has been facing slower population growth.
Government data showed that the number of Japanese nationals fell by more than 900,000 in 2024.
Tokyo is now the third-largest city in the world (Picture: Getty Images)
The city’s peak population was in 2009, with nearly 12.7 million, but has been on a gradual decline for 16 years.
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Tokyo’s government has tried to fight this decline, including childbirth and housing subsidies to encourage fathers to take paternity leave.
However, this does not seem to have worked as, each year, fewer babies are born and more deaths are recorded.
In 2024, the number of births recorded was the lowest among records going back to 1969, at a figure of 687,689.
Nearly 1.6 million deaths were recorded in the same year.
The world's largest cities and their populations in 2025
- Jakarta, Indonesia – 42 million
- Dhaka, Bangladesh – 37 million
- Tokyo, Japan – 33 million
- New 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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