The World's Largest Cities by Area

Dhaka covers the most ground, 6,611 km² of contiguous built-up land, ahead of Guangzhou–Shenzhen (6,454 km²) and Tokyo (5,165 km²).

#CityPopulation
1Dhaka37.3 million
2Guangzhou–Shenzhen43.0 million
3Tokyo33.2 million
4Jakarta40.5 million
5Los Angeles13.5 million
6Hajipur–Muzaffarpur region9.76 million
7Shanghai30.7 million
8New York14.2 million
9Miami5.73 million
10Bangkok19.0 million
11Manila25.9 million
12Kolkata23.3 million
13Nagoya7.72 million
14Seoul22.3 million
15Osaka–Kobe–Kyoto12.7 million
16Buenos Aires14.2 million
17Beijing18.2 million
18Delhi31.4 million
19Mexico City17.6 million
20São Paulo19.5 million
21Chicago5.32 million
22Shantou–Jieyang10.6 million
23Houston4.30 million
24Suzhou–Wuxi11.5 million
25Johannesburg8.59 million
26Cairo25.2 million
27London10.4 million
28Toronto5.57 million
29San Francisco–San Jose4.72 million
30Melbourne4.01 million
31Moscow14.4 million
32Hangzhou6.39 million
33Ho Chi Minh City14.6 million
34Paris9.33 million
35Sydney4.38 million
36Kozhikode region7.61 million
37Kuala Lumpur8.41 million
38Surabaya6.86 million
39Phoenix2.61 million
40Washington D.C.3.47 million
41Rio de Janeiro9.85 million
42Istanbul14.2 million
43Kochi region5.07 million
44Dallas2.58 million
45Colombo4.72 million
46Lagos12.8 million
47Denver2.43 million
48Detroit1.92 million
49Owerri region3.59 million
50Seattle2.10 million
51Accra5.89 million
52Maharajganj region2.84 million
53Riyadh7.97 million
54Onitsha region5.79 million
55Chennai11.5 million
56Montreal3.22 million
57Nanjing8.06 million
58Bangalore15.2 million
59Bandung8.69 million
60Lima10.8 million
61Taipei9.69 million
62Khartoum7.11 million
63Luanda11.7 million
64Hanoi4.97 million
65Dar es Salaam8.92 million
66Lahore14.3 million
67Hyderabad9.46 million
68Tamluk region2.45 million
69Ruhr (Essen–Duisburg)2.72 million
70Portland1.84 million
71Chengdu5.61 million
72Mesa–Chandler1.72 million
73Dubai–Sharjah4.57 million
74Las Vegas2.37 million
75Karachi21.0 million
76Linyi1.56 million
77Tehran9.36 million
78Kampala5.18 million
79Durban3.27 million
80Santiago6.63 million
81Quanzhou3.38 million
82Milan3.14 million
83Perth1.36 million
84San Diego1.98 million
85Wuhan8.08 million
86Sacramento1.70 million
87Ponnani region2.75 million
88Manchester2.54 million
89Orlando1.23 million
90Shenyang6.18 million
91Mumbai20.5 million
92Kollam region3.46 million
93Brisbane1.36 million
94Jeddah4.84 million
95Cape Town4.34 million
96Xi'an5.30 million
97Baghdad6.89 million
98Monterrey4.01 million
99Birmingham2.62 million
100Berlin3.55 million

Urban area = contiguous built-up land and the people living in it in 2025, drawn the same way for every city regardless of administrative boundaries. Source: GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (CC BY 4.0); some names adjusted to the city names people use, and country attribution follows the dataset.

“Region” marks urban areas that join many towns and dense rural settlement into one built-up area; they are named after their main town.

Why These Numbers Differ from City Limits

Official city limits are drawn differently in every country: some take in farmland and mountains, others stop at the historic core. Ranking cities by those limits mostly ranks boundary decisions. These lists use the built-up area instead, so a city's figure includes its suburbs wherever they are continuous with it, and nothing beyond.

For figures inside official limits, see the city-limits rankings; for the background, read how to compare city sizes honestly. Click any city to see it on a map at the same scale as another.

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