An urban area, also known as a built-up area or urban agglomeration, 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 BC 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
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. 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. This was the first time that the majority of the world's population lived in a city. 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.
In 2014 there were 7.3 billion people living on the planet, 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.
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.
Urbanization
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.
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 latter 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 . Any areas [separated by] less than 200 metres [of non-urban space] are linked to become a single built-up area.
Argentina and Japan are countries where the urbanization rate is over 100% 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%.
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.
According to Demographia, these are the urban areas in the world with a population exceeding 5,000,000 (as of 2025): +Urban AreaCountry/ RegionPopulation1Guangzhou-ShenzhenChina69,562,0002Shanghai-ChangzhouChina45,115,0003Tokyo-YokohamaJapan37,325,0004JakartaIndonesia36,877,0005DelhiIndia33,224,0006MumbaiIndia26,237,0007ManilaPhilippines25,521,0008DhakaBangladesh25,305,0009Seoul-IncheonSouth Korea23,825,00010Mexico CityMexico23,146,80211CairoEgypt22,684,00012BeijingChina22,363,00013São PauloBrazil21,747,00014KarachiPakistan21,258,00015KolkataIndia20,327,00016BangkokThailand20,284,00017New YorkUnited States19,426,44918MoscowRussia19,100,00019BangaloreIndia16,216,00020Ho Chi Minh CityVietnam16,024,00021Buenos AiresArgentina15,933,00022LagosNigeria15,283,00023Johannesburg-PretoriaSouth Africa15,026,00024Osaka-Kobe-KyotoJapan14,998,00025IstanbulTurkey14,749,00026LahorePakistan14,256,00027TehranIran14,137,00028KinshasaDemocratic Republic of the Congo13,060,00029Rio de JaneiroBrazil12,546,00030Hangzhou-ShaoxingChina12,422,00031Los AngelesUnited States12,237,37632Shantou-JieyangChina12,187,00033TianjinChina12,095,00034ChennaiIndia11,950,00035LuandaAngola11,892,00036ChongqingChina 11,524,00037LondonUnited Kingdom11,360,00038ParisFrance11,282,00039LimaPeru10,914,00040BogotaColombia10,734,00041HyderabadIndia10,101,00042WuhanChina10,041,00043Kuala LumpurMalaysia9,899,00044TaipeiTaiwan9,866,00045NagoyaJapan9,617,00046NanjingChina 8,929,00047Dar es SalaamTanzania8,877,00048ChicagoUnited States8,790,00049RiyadhSaudi Arabia8,589,00050Xi'anChina8,313,00051ChengduChina8,040,00052AhmedabadIndia7,961,00053Addis AbabaEthiopia7,922,00054Shenyang-FushunChina 7,768,00055OnitshaNigeria 7,756,00056KhartoumSudan7,677,00057Washington-BaltimoreUnited States7,636,00058BandungIndonesia 7,490,00059Boston-ProvidenceUnited States 7,375,00060NairobiKenya7,264,00061SantiagoChile7,192,00062BaghdadIraq7,160,00063Hong KongHong Kong7,117,00064Dallas-Fort WorthUnited States6,980,00065MadridSpain6,966,00066PuneIndia 6,944,00067Essen-DüsseldorfGermany6,874,00068ZhengzhouChina6,860,00069SurabayaIndonesia 6,820,00069YangonMyanmar6,820,00071HoustonUnited States6,804,00072AmmanJordan6,694,00073QuanzhouChina6,487,00074AbidjanIvory Coast6,461,00075TorontoCanada6,400,00076San Francisco United States6,376,00077AccraGhana5,785,00078SuratIndia 6,601,00079Xiamen-ZhangzhouChina6,237,00080MiamiUnited States6,129,00081SingaporeSingapore6,056,00082KabulAfghanistan6,009,00083AlexandriaEgypt 5,916,00084HefeiChina 5,875,00085St. PetersburgRussia 5,869,00086QingdaoChina 5,806,00087HanoiVietnam 5,700,00088PhiladelphiaUnited States5,697,00089FaisalabadPakistan 5,650,00090AnkaraTurkey 5,638,00091MilanItaly5,631,00092AtlantaUnited States5,495,00093BarcelonaSpain 5,489,00094JiddahSaudi Arabia5,482,00095TaiyuanChina 5,371,00096Belo HorizonteBrazil 5,368,00097MashhadIran 5,321,00098Rawalpindi-IslamabadPakistan5,203,00099KumasiGhana5,192,000100MelbourneAustralia5,185,000101DubaiUnited Arab Emirates5,097,000102YaoundeCameroon5,095,000103KampalaUganda5,074,000104SydneyAustralia5,037,000
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 define urbanized areas on the basis of urban-type land use, not allowing any gaps of typically more than , and use satellite imagery instead of census blocks to determine the boundaries of the urban area. In less-developed countries, 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.
By region Africa South Africa
South Africa has eight metro areas. Metropolitan municipalities (Category A municipalities), as defined in SA, are the most developed areas of the country, and execute all the functions of local government for a city or conurbation. They are created by provincial governments. As per the country's 2022 census data, South Africa has five metros (major urban areas) with a population of over four million residents, with the other three having a population of around one million. The country's three branches of government are split over different cities. Cape Town is the legislative capital, Pretoria the administrative capital, and Bloemfontein the judicial capital. The table below shows all South African metro areas, ranked by population size.
Name Province Seat of government Population(2022) Area(km2) Pop. density(per km2) City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality Gauteng Johannesburg 4,803,262 1,645 2,924 City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality Western Cape Cape Town 4,772,864 2,446 1,956 eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality KwaZulu-Natal Durban 4,239,901 2,556 1,659 City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality Gauteng Germiston 4,066,691 1,975 2,058 City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality Gauteng Pretoria 4,040,315 6,298 642 Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality Eastern Cape Gqeberha 1,190,496 1,957 608 Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality Eastern Cape East London 975,255 2,750 354 Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality Free State Bloemfontein 811,431 9,886 82
Asia East Asia China
Since 2000, China's cities have expanded at an average rate of 10% annually. It is estimated that China's urban population will increase by 292 million people by 2050, when its cities will house a combined population of over one billion. The country's urbanization rate increased from 17.4% to 46.6% between 1978 and 2009. Between 150 and 200 million migrant workers work part-time in the major cities, returning home to the countryside periodically with their earnings.
China has more cities with one million or more long-term residents than any other country, including the three global cities of Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai; by 2025, the country will be home to 221 cities with over a million inhabitants. The figures in the table below are from the 2008 census, and are only estimates of the urban populations within administrative city limits; a different ranking exists when considering the total municipal populations (which includes suburban and rural populations). The large "floating populations" of migrant workers make conducting censuses in urban areas difficult;Francesco Sisci. "China's floating population a headache for census". The Straits Times. 22 September 2000. the figures below include only long-term residents.
Japan In Japan, urbanized areas are defined as contiguous areas of densely inhabited districts (DIDs) using census enumeration districts as units with a density requirement of .
South Korea Seoul is the largest urban area in South Korea.
Taiwan Greater Taipei is the largest urban area in Taiwan.
South Asia Bangladesh In Bangladesh, there are total 532 urban areas, which are divided into three categories. Those are City Corporation, Municipal Corporation (Pourasova) and Upazila town. Among those urban areas, Dhaka is the largest city by population and area, with a population of 19.10 million. In Bangladesh, there are total 11 City Corporations and 329 Municipal Corporations and 203 Small towns, which serves as the center for Upazilas. According to 2011 population census, Bangladesh has an urban population of 28%, with a growth rate of 2.8%. At this growth rate, it is estimated that the urban population of Bangladesh will reach 79 million or 42% of total population by 2035.
India