Largest Cities in Asia by Population

The largest urban area in Asia is Guangzhou–Shenzhen, followed by Jakarta and Dhaka. Guangzhou–Shenzhen has 43.0 million people on 6,454 km² of built-up land. 300 urban areas in Asia have at least 1 million people or are a national capital; the table shows the largest 100.

#CityPopulation
1Guangzhou–Shenzhen43.0 million
2Jakarta40.5 million
3Dhaka37.3 million
4Tokyo33.2 million
5Delhi31.4 million
6Shanghai30.7 million
7Manila25.9 million
8Kolkata23.3 million
9Seoul22.3 million
10Karachi21.0 million
11Mumbai20.5 million
12Bangkok19.0 million
13Beijing18.2 million
14Bangalore15.2 million
15Ho Chi Minh City14.6 million
16Lahore14.3 million
17Osaka–Kobe–Kyoto12.7 million
18Suzhou–Wuxi11.5 million
19Chennai11.5 million
20Shantou–Jieyang10.6 million
21Hajipur–Muzaffarpur region9.76 million
22Taipei9.69 million
23Hyderabad9.46 million
24Tehran9.36 million
25Bandung8.69 million
26Chongqing8.45 million
27Kuala Lumpur8.41 million
28Wuhan8.08 million
29Nanjing8.06 million
30Riyadh7.97 million
31Ahmedabad7.90 million
32Nagoya7.72 million
33Kozhikode region7.61 million
34Tianjin7.33 million
35Surat7.10 million
36Baghdad6.89 million
37Surabaya6.86 million
38Pune6.67 million
39Amman6.43 million
40Hangzhou6.39 million
41Kabul6.25 million
42Yangon6.19 million
43Shenyang6.18 million
44Faisalabad5.68 million
45Hefei5.65 million
46Chengdu5.61 million
47Mashhad5.38 million
48Xi'an5.30 million
49Lucknow5.21 million
50Chattogram5.18 million
51Zhengzhou5.13 million
52Singapore5.12 million
53Kochi region5.07 million
54Hanoi4.97 million
55Islamabad–Rawalpindi4.91 million
56Jeddah4.84 million
57Hong Kong4.81 million
58Colombo4.72 million
59Harbin4.59 million
60Dubai–Sharjah4.57 million
61Kanpur4.41 million
62Medan4.35 million
63Taiyuan4.33 million
64Jaipur4.23 million
65Ürümqi3.97 million
66Tashkent3.87 million
67Kathmandu3.86 million
68Wenzhou3.84 million
69Jinan3.82 million
70Varanasi3.81 million
71Damascus3.77 million
72Sana'a3.76 million
73Kuwait City3.70 million
74Ankara3.70 million
75Savar region3.70 million
76Nanning3.70 million
77Qingdao3.68 million
78Nanchang3.64 million
79Dalian3.60 million
80Indore3.60 million
81Karaj3.59 million
82Changchun3.52 million
83Peshawar3.50 million
84Kollam region3.46 million
85Patna3.43 million
86Nagpur3.40 million
87Quanzhou3.38 million
88Semarang3.27 million
89Busan3.26 million
90Changsha3.25 million
91Kunming3.22 million
92Kalyan-Dombivli3.21 million
93Cebu City3.19 million
94Thiruvananthapuram region3.17 million
95Gujranwala3.11 million
96Shijiazhuang3.10 million
97Aleppo3.08 million
98Multan2.97 million
99Hyderabad2.96 million
100Ningbo2.95 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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