Manila is 19th on the list of the 20 most populous cities in the world, the only city in Southeast Asia included in the ranking.
With 13.923 million residents, Manila is one notch ahead of Tianjin, at No. 20 with a population of 13.580 million.
The ranking is made by Visual Capitalist, an independent online publisher of data graphics.
The world’s most populous cities are Tokyo (37.393 million), Delhi (30.291 million), Shanghai (27.058 million), Sí£o Paulo (22.043 million) and Mexico City (21.782 million).
Tokyo, the most populated city, has three times the number of residents than Tianjian in China. Four of the cities with the most residents are in China, three are in India and two are in Japan.
In the Top 10 are Dhaka, Cairo, Beijing, Mumbai, and Osaka — in that order.
They are followed by New York City, Karachi, Chongqing, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, Kolkata, Lagos, Kinshasa, Manila and Tianjin.
More than half of the world’s population currently lives in cities, according to Visual Capitalist, a graphics data source designed to cut through the clutter of what it estimates some 2.5 quintillion bytes of worldwide data generated every day.
Its graphics are based on proprietary data, with the vast majority on public sources, census data, US Federal Reserve Economic Data, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and so on.
Using data from Macrotrends, a research platform for investors, Visual Capitalist reckons that all the world’s top 20 most populous cities are megacities with populations over 10 million.
More than 80 percent of people in higher income countries live in urban areas, it said. In upper-middle income countries the number lies between 50 percent to 80 percent.
Prospects of better job opportunities and higher wages, along with shifts from agrarian to industrial and service-based economies, are causing the mass movement to cities.
While Tokyo is the world’s most populous city, it is levelling off because of declining birth rates and an aging population. New Delhi’s population could surpass Tokyo’s by 2028.
By 2035, Bangalore (India) and Lahore (Pakistan) will replace Tianjin and Buenos Aires in the Top 20. By then, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chennai will be megacities with populations of 10 billion and up.
While there are certainly downsides to mass urbanization, like pollution and overcrowding, the upsides clearly outweigh the negatives for most people, according to Visual Capitalist.
“Convenience, better jobs, easier access to social services, and higher wages are among the many reasons people are likely to continue to move to cities, even in the post-COVID era,” it said.
With the emergence of smart and green cities, “the quality of life for many urban dwellers will likely continue to improve, and more large urban areas will morph into megacities,” it added. – Paul Icamina
