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Biggest Cities in the World Quiz

How many of the world's 50 most populous urban areas can you name?
As of January 2019 according to citypopulation.de
Urban area population, not city proper population
Quiz by Quizmaster
Rate:
Featured Quiz
Last updated: February 15, 2019
More quiz info >>
First submittedMarch 25, 2012
Times taken285,813
Rating4.82
Quiz and answer stats >>
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Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...
Population
Urban Area
45.6 m
Guangzhou
40.2 m
Tokyo
35.9 m
Shanghai
30.6 m
Jakarta
29.4 m
Delhi
25.2 m
Manila
24.7 m
Mumbai
24.7 m
Seoul
22.8 m
Mexico City
22.4 m
New York City
22.2 m
São Paulo
20.5 m
Cairo
20.4 m
Beijing
19.5 m
Dhaka
18.8 m
Lagos
18.3 m
Bangkok
17.8 m
Los Angeles
Population
Urban Area
17.7 m
Osaka
17.3 m
Karachi
17.2 m
Moscow
16.6 m
Kolkata
16.3 m
Buenos Aires
15.8 m
Istanbul
15.0 m
Tehran
14.7 m
London
13.7 m
Johannesburg
13.2 m
Tianjin
13.1 m
Rio de Janeiro
12.6 m
Lahore
12.0 m
Kinshasa
11.8 m
Bangalore
11.4 m
Paris
11.0 m
Chennai
10.5 m
Nagoya
Population
Urban Area
9.90 m
Lima
9.90 m
Xiamen
9.85 m
Hyderabad
9.80 m
Bogotá
9.80 m
Chengdu
9.75 m
Chicago
9.10 m
Taipei
8.85 m
Wuhan
8.70 m
Kuala Lumpur
8.60 m
Ho Chi Minh City
8.55 m
Washington, DC
8.30 m
Hangzhou
8.25 m
Ahmedabad
8.05 m
Chongqing
7.90 m
Luanda
7.90 m
Shenyang
Ithabise
+5
Level 33
Apr 2, 2012
Something's wrong: Dallas, Boston, D.C., San Francisco and no Houston or Philadelphia?
Nacnud
+5
Level 28
Feb 21, 2013
Can't believe Boston is in this. I even live their and I don't think it's larger than Philly.
burtviile
+7
Level 86
May 10, 2013
The stats used here for the US are Combined Statistical Areas and are much larger than what would usually be thought of as the cities metro area. The numbers here for Boston include the entire eastern half of MA, southern NH, and all of RI. Not really Boston's metro area.
SouthwestChief
+2
Level 66
Nov 9, 2014
They have Philadelphia!!!
JackintheBox
+9
Level 68
Feb 17, 2019
there*
ALA02
+6
Level 57
Mar 21, 2019
The American idea of a city is different to the worldwide one. These are all urban areas joined by continuous urban landscape, not just adresses or city limits. For example, Guangzhou on its own only has 20 million, where as if you include other cities it reaches 45 million. Boston and Dallas are part of much larger urban areas.
kalbahamut
+6
Level 81
Sep 28, 2019
This is using the standards of a German website, not applying different standards to different countries.
RyanSem
+10
Level 39
Apr 2, 2012
I did not expect D.C. :P
kalbahamut
+17
Level 81
Mar 16, 2013
the city proper is tiny. The metro area is huge.
snix
+8
Level 56
Oct 30, 2014
I'm sitting in that metro area and I didn't think to include it. Blechh.
TheLordOfquizzes
+3
Level 36
May 17, 2020
Not always, Chinese cities govern huge areas of land. Chonquing isn't on this list, but is top if you used city proper.
username729
+3
Level 37
Apr 4, 2012
I am skeptical of Washington D.C. having that many people. Wiki says the metro is 5.58 million.
Lebron23James
+3
Level 43
Jun 15, 2015
It probably includes Baltimore metro
Quizmaster
+18
Level ∞
Apr 4, 2012
For people who are "skeptical" of the numbers... I usually use Wikipedia, but for population they are inconsistent. They gather their numbers from a variety of sources, including citypopulation.de. Going with citypopulation.de seemed to be the most sensible. Metro population is something that is extremely subjective, but citypopulation.de applies a consistent methodology across the whole world. IMHO, it has a better claim to accuracy to any other organization. I don't just make this stuff up, people!!!
CorkSpork
+2
Level 71
Feb 5, 2013
I am from Washington, DC, and we have a total metro population less than 8.6 M...much less the city. CityPopulation.de tells me the DC population is 601,723, based on the 2010 census data...Can you be more specific with wher e on the site you found this data? I'm only seeing 2010 data with 2011 projections...Not trying to attack you or anything, just curious.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Mar 16, 2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_metropolitan_area

looks like this 8.6 million figure is including the entire gigantic Washington/Baltimore urban area. Which itself is just part of the sprawling megalopolis that runs all the way from northern Virginia up through Boston on the east coast of the United States.

burtviile
+3
Level 86
May 10, 2013
The 8.6 million includes the entire state of MD, the northeast counties of WV, VA all the down into the Shenandoah Valley, south central PA, and oh yeh also DC.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Sep 21, 2013
it doesn't include the entire state of Maryland. Most of it, sure, but Maryland is a little sliver of a state most of which is centered around the DC/Baltimore megalopolis area.
beetboy12
+1
Level 44
Jul 30, 2014
45 minutes is nothing, it would take longer to get from Fairfax to Silver Spring.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Mar 11, 2015
Right, it takes an hour to drive across Riyadh and that's with no traffic. Hell, it takes that long for me to drive from one side of Antalya to the other... Konyaalti to Muratpasa.
Jerry928
+2
Level 74
Sep 10, 2015
If 8.0 of the 8.6 million live in Maryland and Virginia, then tacking on "DC" to the end of Washington seems a bit misleading.
martay
+1
Level 64
Aug 17, 2018
I for one am ready for the megacities like San Angeles if means finally learning the secrets of the "three seashells"
Milanthro
+1
Level 57
Sep 10, 2015
Well isn't that just like the Toronto-Hmilton metropolitan area? Shouldn't that be in there?
TDSnare
+1
Level 21
Apr 7, 2012
Is it acceptable to have LA work for Los Angeles?
buck1017
+16
Level 72
Aug 28, 2015
no because if you tried guessing Lahore, you would get it LA automatically.
Istink
+1
Level 10
May 11, 2012
got 41 of them, piece of cake
Uxinator
+1
Level 34
Jan 10, 2013
50/50 I am too smart
tschutzer
+37
Level 86
Feb 27, 2013
And way too humble as well.
Kingofuzbekistan
+1
Level 22
Dec 1, 2020
In what time? I got it with 3:47 left
benjaminmarker
+1
Level 67
Feb 19, 2013
50/50 with 4:33 left. Didn't get Shenyang the first time though.
pantera69
+10
Level 16
Feb 27, 2013
i think we should all argue some more
tschutzer
+21
Level 86
Feb 27, 2013
I strongly disagree!
DeusCaritasEst
+11
Level 58
Dec 14, 2015
Well, I disagree with both of you!
CardinalSin
+4
Level 71
Jun 16, 2020
Do you want the five minute argument or the full half hour?
zimbabwe12
+2
Level 53
Mar 1, 2013
the east is taking over the world we are doomed #RIPamerica
kalbahamut
+2
Level 81
Sep 21, 2013
Haven't taken this one in quite a while. Did pretty well this time... only missed Wuhan and Nagoya. Got Hyderabad and Tianjin which I usually miss..
badoperate
+31
Level 51
Feb 6, 2020
No one will ever miss Wuhan again
PraNic8192
+2
Level 52
Apr 5, 2020
Of course. I remembered it that way.
seabird
+3
Level 60
Apr 27, 2020
Took this again. Got a few I didn't know from the previous attempt but still missed Wuhan!
TimurPozh
+2
Level 25
Feb 12, 2014
not very trusting numbers
Cahill2
+2
Level 37
Mar 19, 2014
45/50.

I'm ashamed that I missed Chennai. I was thinking of all the Indian cities, and I somehow forgot chennai.

trombonekid98
+2
Level 67
Mar 22, 2014
I just checked citypopulation.de, and saw the list had changed drastically. someone should update it.
zupermaus
+2
Level 29
Mar 31, 2014
Updates?

Chengdu urban pop is: 7.7 million, Chongqing at least 7 million, Hangzhou-Shaoxing 8.2 million. Shenzhen has recently joined up with the city of Dongguan in the north (check it out on Google Earth) - and arguably Guangzhou though a river divides them. Shenzhen-Dongguan counts 18.3 million. Dhaka is now 15 million (contiguous city not just the city limits). The Ruhr city in Germany of the merged cities of Essen, Dortmund, Duisburg, Bochum and Dusseldorf counts contiguously 8 million.

JHAssassin
+3
Level 32
Oct 30, 2014
First of all, never trust the population charts of China, our Communist government lied, Chengdu has way more than 7.7 mil. Chongqing has significantly smaller but only the urban area. All of the Ruhr doesn't count as urban but instead something like megacity or metropolis
zupermaus
+2
Level 29
Mar 31, 2014
Oh yes Jakarta has physically merged into surrounding former-satellites and the Jabodetabek metropolis now counts 28 million at the least, though the suburbs stretch far beyond that even.
zupermaus
+3
Level 29
Mar 31, 2014
Oh yep, also for all the people moaning about inconsistencies in the US counts, basically US uses a different measure to other global cities, one based on commuting habits (as low as 10% of the population of a satellite town or county commuting to the next county will get them counted into the larger city) rather than the contiguous extent of a city and its suburbs. In effect it inflates the US figures even beyond the sprawl. The real contiguous count for NYC for example is really about 18-19 million rather than the 22 million, enacted a couple of years ago and that doubled the size of the area counted to include numerous small satellite towns and vast swathes of empty rural areas. These counts are called metropolitan areas, or CSAs or MCSAs.

-But don't tar all the cities with the same inflation, for example Washington DC is contiguously merged with Baltimore thanks to the sprawl. I think the count although not as high as 8 million still makes it 6 million anyhoo.

Quizmaster
+2
Level ∞
Mar 31, 2014
Thanks for your insightful comment. I hear so many complaints mostly because people don't understand the difference between city proper and urban area. I think you're probably giving most of the complainers too much credit. In any case, I am not a demographer. I just choose a single source which tries to provide a consistent methodology for the whole world. In this case, my source is citypopulation.de. I doubt any single other source does better, and I'm not knowledgeable enough to pick and choose between various sources.
zupermaus
+2
Level 29
Mar 31, 2014
forgot to mention, the biggest metro statistic inflation on the list is Los Angeles. The city is really about 12.8 million, increased to 15 million if you count the commuter habits, and increased all the way 17 million if you loosen up those commuter criteria even more, including large areas of desert, scrub and mountain. Double that and you get over 18 million in an area the size of a small country, say Scotland, Jordan or Serbia, with the actual urban area a fraction of it. The NYC area count is even larger. The commuting criteria are so loose now that for the town or area to be included they do not even need to commute to the central city, merely the next town or county along, which creates a hop-a-long effect (and as low as 10% of that town's population for the other 90% to be counted).

The US is the only country to base it's counts on commuting habits, if other cities round the world would do the same places like Istanbul, Beijing, Cairo would increase to well over 20 million etc

burtviile
+3
Level 86
Jul 13, 2014
Exactly zupermaus, if these geographic sample sizes were used in China the entire Pearl River Delta could be counted as one city, with a population approaching 100 million.
zimbabwe12
+2
Level 53
Apr 10, 2014
Philly should count for Philadelphia
Quizmaster
+3
Level ∞
Apr 10, 2014
Okay
Travellinman
+2
Level 43
Apr 10, 2014
When I was in Chongqing, China, many people told me that it was the largest city in China. It says 29.4 million on Wikipedia...
Quizmaster
+7
Level ∞
Apr 11, 2014
That's cute. Chongqing is a "municipality" that covers an area 3 times the size of Belgium. It's definitely not one continuous urban area.
burtviile
+4
Level 86
Jul 13, 2014
It's cute that you blast this while defending the numbers you use for the US. The CSA numbers used in this quiz certainly do not represent "one continuous urban area".
burtviile
+2
Level 86
Jul 13, 2014
@Quizmaster, Thank you for the quiz though, I'm just ornery and it gives me something to grumble about.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Jul 16, 2016
Pretty much the entire Eastern seaboard from Boston to the Northern Virginia DC suburbs is a continuous urban area.
Yamaneko
+1
Level 77
Nov 18, 2016
Plus, Chongqing is historically a major city in Sichuan, I suspect China converted the city and surrounding valleys as a special municipality just to face less administrative hurdles in building the Three Gorges Dam. They're not called "direct-controlled municipalities" for nothing, after all...
will14
+1
Level 24
Dec 24, 2016
definitely not 3 times the size of Belguim, the same size at most!!
DJ1
+2
Level 21
Dec 26, 2014
Chongqing is Largest in China? OMG WHO ARE YOU KIDDING? Guangzhou, HongKong, Beijing, and Shanghai are so much larger
Mogysht
+2
Level 46
Sep 11, 2015
He just repeated what other people told him. OMG, why are you so ignorant?
sp3nk1
+1
Level 34
Nov 26, 2020
Chongqing is the biggest. His urban area is 20.000.000 but its municipal's area it's more than Canton, otherwise Shangai, Guangzhou, Taipei ecc. are smaller than here shows.
Epicx
+1
Level 24
Apr 11, 2014
I wonder what is the populaton of qingdao. Shandong's population is 95 million.
cuotak
+1
Level 61
Apr 11, 2014
Qingdao urban population is only 4.8 million
DJ1
+1
Level 21
Dec 26, 2014
Shandong does not have a population of 95 million, maybe you meant 9.5 million?
tshalla
+1
Level 70
Jun 23, 2016
Nope. (S)he meant 95 million and was correct. You know Shandong is a province, right?
Findlay
+1
Level 73
Aug 18, 2016
9.5 million would make it tiny by the standards of Chinese provinces. At a guess I'd say that's roughly the population of Hainan.
Epicx
+1
Level 24
Apr 11, 2014
There couldn't be more Us cities than indian citie and there needs to be houston,toronto and ahmadabad
Findlay
+1
Level 73
Aug 8, 2016
India's population may be much bigger than that of the US, but the US is far more urbanised.
Dragonninja42
+1
Level 55
Apr 15, 2014
I'm proud that even though we're only the 20th Largest City in the World, We're still the second most guessed.
sillie
+1
Level 82
May 11, 2014
Damn I am good. Forgot ALL ABOUT LONDON! (also Paris and Istanbul, but...). How can anyone non-Chinese manage to get all the Chinese cities right? Kudos.
Findlay
+1
Level 73
Aug 8, 2016
Yep. Got 'em all. But repeated trips to China and an Asian Studies degree probably helps.
Yrk
+1
Level 47
Jul 13, 2014
please correct the "Sao PaUlo" typo :)
Quizzology
+1
Level 53
Jul 13, 2014
It's Sao Paulo. Look it up.
Komorebi
+1
Level 20
Dec 20, 2016
He was talking about the capital letter mistake.
Lilylee
+1
Level 69
Jul 22, 2014
Chongqing should make this list soon. Some sources already list it being the biggest city in the world but that's a bit of a stretch.
Findlay
+1
Level 73
Aug 8, 2016
A European-country-sized area is included in the statistics for Chongqing municipality. Only a small minority of that number actually live in the city.
Laurent
+1
Level 53
Jul 23, 2014
48/50. Forgot Hangzhou and.... Washington D.C.!
richardlecoq
+1
Level 35
Aug 15, 2014
could you accept sao paolo?
RodrigoJunior
+1
Level 37
Jan 23, 2019
it's são paulo, not sao paolo
LeonBird
+1
Level 30
Sep 22, 2014
guangzhou has a population of 14 mil
shute
+1
Level 34
Apr 2, 2017
but the combined metro area with shenzhen and other smaller cities gives it a combined population of 40 mil
LeonBird
+1
Level 30
Sep 22, 2014
proud of 20/50 for 10 yr old
daffad
+2
Level 20
Oct 2, 2014
All 50 and im 12 and i had one minute 51 seconds!!!!
Shade9099
+3
Level 60
Mar 18, 2020
I got 51 and I am a 2 year old who only types in translated Swahili!
anavil1234
+2
Level 46
Jan 25, 2015
Wow...

I got all the hard Chinese cities that I just recently new of so it was hard and I missed out the more obvious ones like Bangalore and Kinshasa

bomber184
+2
Level 21
Feb 11, 2015
How is New York's population 21.6 Million while its population of right now is just above 8 million?
bomber184
+2
Level 21
Feb 11, 2015
Is it including suburbs or something?
Findlay
+2
Level 73
Aug 8, 2016
This may not be helpful a year and a half later, but in short: yes. That 8 million figure is only the five boroughs. This figure includes the vast sprawl beyond that, both in New York and New Jersey. Same with all of these cities.
parsons8
+2
Level 27
Mar 11, 2015
Any possibility of allowing Djakarta as an alternate spelling for Jakarta?
Knowledgio
+2
Level 40
Oct 5, 2016
I've never heard it being spelt that way...
Freestatebear
+3
Level 80
Dec 20, 2016
The "D" was dropped from the official spelling in about 1972. (Djibouti, however, still clings to their D!)
rawe
+2
Level 65
Apr 3, 2015
42/50. I'm 17.
grecoroman
+2
Level 57
Jun 3, 2015
should accept "Sao Paolo"
rawe
+4
Level 65
Oct 7, 2015
But that's Italian, is not too hard to remember the Portuguese name, is just one letter.
Liopleurodon
+2
Level 66
Jul 2, 2015
Darn it!

Missed San Francisco

*Facepalm*

Robjohnson
+2
Level 74
Jul 15, 2015
There are some major changes including a new #1 city in the world. Can you update?
shuriken15
+2
Level 33
Jul 16, 2015
Missed 3... one of them was Beijing.... sigh...
RedZombieAngel
+2
Level 40
Mar 18, 2017
Missed 5, Shanghai and Chicago Included...... More Sighing
beelzebub98
+1
Level 34
Aug 13, 2017
also missed 5...and DC was among them...://
Hyzoo
+1
Level 44
Sep 5, 2017
Missed Seoul...
ndouglass
+1
Level 51
Aug 4, 2015
please accept Sao Paolo for Sao Paulo
zupermaus
+1
Level 29
Aug 13, 2015
Guangzhou-Foshan is now considered the biggest city in the world as of this year, with 41 million, as its just merged contiguously with Shenzhen-Dongguan (you can check it out on Google Earth). These 4 cities have grown so quickly they're now one continuous mass (not to be confused with a CSA or megalopolis).
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Aug 16, 2015
The quiz has been updated.
lightstream
+1
Level 65
Aug 17, 2015
I'm surprised Shenzhen dropped off the list. Did some of the districts merge with Guangzhou? So we trade that and Philly for Xiamen and Shantu... Neither of those was familiar to me but I'll remember them now.
lightstream
+1
Level 65
Aug 17, 2015
Also lost HongKong and gained back Ahmedabad.
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Aug 17, 2015
They merged Shenzhen with Guangzhou, which seems reasonable. Hong Kong is still separate, but isn't big enough to qualify anymore.
Mogysht
+1
Level 46
Sep 11, 2015
Some people count Hong Kong to the Pearl River Delta, but the case with HK is very peculiar as it is a SAR (Special Administrative Region).
Findlay
+1
Level 73
Mar 14, 2018
Hong Kong (the city) is separate. The part of the SAR that abuts Shenzhen is not built-up. In fact only about 15% of the SAR is urbanised.
amangla
+1
Level 59
Sep 10, 2015
Ugh, missed some of the obvious ones!
LarryLovage
+3
Level 58
Sep 10, 2015
Ironically considering the country of origin of the source, citypopulation.de, not one city in Germany on the list.
Tramp
+5
Level 71
Sep 10, 2015
German cities are very decentralised. Instead of having one massive city like London/Paris and lots of small cities, Germany has lots of medium sized cities.
brandybuck96
+5
Level 77
Dec 5, 2015
Why? They would hardly lie about the population of their cities just because they own the website.
RPHXX
+2
Level 67
Nov 6, 2017
They actually do (kinda). They include Parts of the Rhein-Ruhr to Cologne-Bonn, which are two seperate Urban Areas in their opinion
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Sep 10, 2015
This update I missed Lima, Xiamen (which is on my History by Letter - X quiz... shame), Shantou, and Shenyang. Not as good as my last performance. Never would have thought of Shantou.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Mar 11, 2017
This time got all of those. Missed Wuhan and Lahore.
kolp
+1
Level 81
Sep 10, 2015
I have an inkling that if accurate demographic data would be available we would see some more western African cities
tshalla
+2
Level 70
May 16, 2016
Such as? I don't think Dakar, Abidjan, Accra, Kano, Ibadan or any of the other possibilities are that big, even if defined as loosely as the source sometimes does.
kolp
+1
Level 81
Mar 4, 2019
West like in west coast, and Luanda, my first thought, has now made the list. Abidjan for sure will not be too far off, once we get some proper estimates. We have no idea how many people actually live in these cities, and we usually grossly underestimate them.
slkrr9
+5
Level 38
Sep 10, 2015
Why are so many people asking to allow the misspelling "Sao Paolo"? LOL. Is there somwhere in the world that they actually spell it this way? Should I ask for Londres, Pequim and Nova Iorque?
PSTSCCH
+2
Level 48
Sep 10, 2015
Bengaluru should be accepted for Bangalore. Please, follow this link.
stankyC
+3
Level 61
Jul 28, 2016
seconded. it's the spelling that shows up the most in modern maps.
Jerry928
+3
Level 74
Jan 17, 2017
Yes. I was in Bengaluru last month and that really is its name! Bangalore, Bombay and Calcutta were renamed to Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata between 1995 and 2006. For consistency's sake, all three new names should appear as answers here.
spiderM98
+2
Level 37
Sep 13, 2015
37/50
PeteGreen90
+1
Level 36
Sep 24, 2015
37/50 - Got Nagoya but missed LA?!
manchesterutd10
+1
Level 53
Sep 29, 2015
How did I get Shenyang but forgot Chengdu
rawe
+1
Level 65
Oct 7, 2015
Finally 50/50 with 01:24 left
geowhiz
+1
Level 21
Dec 22, 2015
The quiz says that Guangzhou was #1... is this accurate, because D.C. doesn't have 8.3 million people...
sillie
+1
Level 82
Dec 30, 2015
URBAN AREAS. That's different from City Proper.
akela
+2
Level 35
Jan 6, 2016
Monterrey, NL and Guadalajara, Jal, in Mexico and Madrid in Spain, Sidney, Australia, among others should be in the list
TheodoreE45
+3
Level 78
Oct 9, 2017
No they should not. They should not be included if they don't qualify.
lucd13
+2
Level 67
Dec 5, 2017
As a Sydneysider, I can confirm that: No, we don't belong on this list. We have only a little over 4 million.
JackintheBox
+1
Level 68
Jun 23, 2020
Sydney*
ribs3147
+1
Level 21
Feb 14, 2016
No way Boston is bigger than Toronto, Philadelphia or Chittagong to name a few
Thomas739945
+1
Level 15
Feb 19, 2018
Metropolitan areas are included
zimbabwe12
+1
Level 53
Feb 29, 2016
This one seriously needs to be updated
ExpertEyeroller
+1
Level 34
Mar 16, 2016
This list is very different to the Wikipedia's urban agglomeration list.

Does anyone know why?

elraymo
+1
Level 18
May 6, 2016
You are high if you think guangzhou is larger than tokyo. Its not even the largest city in China.
Gamer1162
+1
Level 63
Jan 18, 2017
You're misinformed if you think that Tokyo is the biggest urban area in the world.
zupermaus
+1
Level 29
May 18, 2016
Guys this list is for the continuous, contiguous urban area. As in all urban areas that are joined and conjoined to each other continuously.

Thus it ignores 'city proper' populations (that's the count of people within the official city boundaries). For example the City of San Francisco is only 800,000 but it continues well past these boundaries as one large urban area of 7-8 million.

It also tries to ignore 'agglomerations' or 'CSA' counts which lumps separated cities and towns together -these usually get counted together as one due to proximity or commuting habits. Truth be told some CSA counts have slipped through into here such as NYC's inflated figure (it really should be below 20 million, but gets an extra million or two by doubling its catchment size that takes in smaller communities in large tracts of open farmland and forest). Likewise as people have ponited out Boston is also a misnomer, a 4.7 million urban area that draws in 8 million via its 'commuter' belt.

zupermaus
+1
Level 29
May 18, 2016
Additionally there are some citiies here that have conjoined into each other - as in they are physically merged without a need to inflate via commuting habits or proximity. One can walk on urban roads with dense, continuous buildings (read: urbanity) on either side from one city to the next. These fully merged cities include San Francisco-Oakland, Washington DC- Baltimore, Tokyo-Yokohma and of course Guangzhou-Shenzhen.
Grafakos
+1
Level 37
Jun 9, 2016
It's a rather long walk from San Francisco to Oakland.
PjotrL
+1
Level 70
Oct 8, 2017
I'm still amazed that San Francisco metro is one of those places where the core city (San Francisco) is actually not the largest in the Urban Area anymore - that title goes to San Jose. Yet for historical purposes, San Francisco will remain the core city. Brussels is another example, where the core is not the largest city in the urban area.
zupermaus
+1
Level 29
May 18, 2016
In short this is a city count based on the city(s)' single urban area.
zupermaus
+1
Level 29
May 18, 2016
And btw Toronto only has 5.5 million at it's most generous count based on its single urban area.
geographyisthebestsubject
+2
Level 46
May 21, 2016
You should accept "LA" for Los Angeles
Instrumental
+1
Level 50
Jun 9, 2016
Nah, if that were acceptable, people who were going to type "Lahore" would get that one by accident.
Supertramp
+2
Level 48
Dec 1, 2016
Well, that happens when you type Dominica for Dominican Republic in the Countries of the World Quiz.
CHEESELWEESEL
+2
Level 62
Jun 18, 2017
And niger for nigeria
JuanLim
+2
Level 37
Mar 21, 2019
And UK for Ukraine
Findlay
+1
Level 73
Aug 8, 2016
I've seen this occasionally come up, including in the comments section here. For those wondering - Shenzhen is now contiguous with Guangzhou and Dongguan as well as a host of smaller cities in the Pearl River Delta area. Hong Kong is not included in this not just because it is an SAR and has a border separating it, but also because most of the New Territories (i.e. the northern part of the HKSAR) is sparsely populated. Of HKSAR's 1000+ sq km, only about 15% is urbanised - large areas like the Saikung Peninsula and many outlying islands are devoid of human habitation. For this reason it makes sense to consider HK separately, but include Shenzhen and Dongguan in the Guangzhou figure.
recica2
+1
Level 38
Nov 17, 2016
49/50...never thought that I'm that good...
ChocolateMoose
+1
Level 35
Nov 17, 2016
This REALLY needs to be updated
Instrumental
+1
Level 50
Nov 20, 2016
Not really. All the cities appear to be the same. I only gave it a quick once over, but the order seems to be the same too. Only difference is the populations have changed slightly.
Instrumental
+1
Level 50
Nov 20, 2016
Oh and the reference: https://www.citypopulation.de/world/Agglomerations.html
Balikati
+1
Level 65
Dec 9, 2016
I got 49 and missed beijing. On my way to take clorox shots...
Antofagasta
+1
Level 48
Dec 30, 2016
Manilaaaa...
VishVarm
+1
Level 50
Jan 10, 2017
That took foooooooorever to finish!
DonStar
+1
Level 44
Jan 23, 2017
Good quiz I always forget the Chinese cities, 1 of these days
mczyzo
+1
Level 51
Feb 5, 2017
Ho Chi Minh = Saigon
bezz
+1
Level 65
Feb 8, 2017
Saigon, 1975. Charlie came to town named it after Uncle Ho
corlissaar
+1
Level 74
Jan 31, 2018
Many of the other quizzes do accept "Saigon" instead of "Ho Chi Minh City". When you visit Vietnam most of the Vietnamese refer to it as "Saigon", although Communist Party members tend to insist upon its formal name of "Ho Chi Minh City."
angusmckay
+1
Level 47
Mar 6, 2017
43 out of 50.... forgot NYC.... the pictured photo
sealsi6
+1
Level 55
Mar 11, 2017
Got 40/50 first try, mainly forgot Chinese and Indian cities, same as y'all. Cool quiz.
cricketwes
+1
Level 58
Mar 11, 2017
Allow 'Saigon' for Ho Chi Minh City?
shape816
+1
Level 56
Mar 11, 2017
It's astonishing to me the number of people taking these quizzes that still don't know what an urban area is.
Ponderosa
+1
Level 79
Mar 11, 2017
So you stopped accepting Saigon for Ho Chi minh City? :(
ahertzy
+1
Level 71
Mar 12, 2017
42 correct. I have only been to 8. 34 cities correct which I have never visited. Good, right? ... I WAS BORN AND RAISED IN BOSTON AND MISSED IT!!! I MISSED MY HOMETOWN!!!
lightbulb75
+1
Level 20
Mar 13, 2017
Typed 'shangai 'several times...fun quiz
calvord
+1
Level 66
Apr 22, 2017
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the US.
calvord
+1
Level 66
Apr 22, 2017
Houston is the fourth-largest city, by population, in the US but not on the list.
calvord
+1
Level 66
May 7, 2017
Both Houston and Dallas have metro areas with higher populations than DC, Philadelphia, and Boston.
calvord
+1
Level 66
May 10, 2017
Houston is the fourth-largest US city and Dallas is about as large. Both have more residents than Boston or DC.
BrandonJ
+1
Level 60
Jun 1, 2017
Urban areas not cities
FlabberBapper
+1
Level 63
Jul 9, 2017
Still, Dallas would have more than Boston with Fort Worth part of the urban area of Dallas.
tazz676
+1
Level 66
Jul 17, 2017
By MSA, Dallas/Ft.Worth is the 4th largest in US. I think

DC and San Francisco jump it in CSA.

MustardCustard
+1
Level 52
May 21, 2017
Rhine-Ruhr in Germany is listed as 11.3 million, if you ever feel like adding it.
Carry
+1
Level 63
Jun 20, 2017
Rhine-Ruhr is a metropolitan area. As you may know metropolitan areas include one or more urban areas.
IceIceIceIceIce
+1
Level 48
Jul 2, 2017
I'm a little confused. As far as I know Tokyo is the largest city in the world and definitely not Guangzhou, which has a population of 14 million. Also, Xiamen is a very small city with a population of 3.5 million. There also are a lot more cities that have way too much population as shown, which is how I only got 50/50 on my fifth try.
Quizmaster
+3
Level ∞
Jul 3, 2017
The source is listed. Where do you get your information?
tieup
+1
Level 23
Mar 21, 2019
Guangzhou merged with 3 other cities to create a mega-city with pop. 47.2 mil.
jxgalt
+1
Level 79
Jul 15, 2017
Some of the numbers in this quiz are beyond bizarre. The supposed source, citypopulation.de, lists the urban area population of Boston as 4.2 million (not 7.5 million - which is larger than the state of Massachusetts). This makes Boston the 10th largest U.S. urban area, well behind Dallas, Houston, Philly, Phoenix and others. San Francisco isn't in the top 10. Seriously, please accurately reflect the sources you cite.
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Jul 15, 2017
http://citypopulation.de/world/Agglomerations.html
jxgalt
+1
Level 79
Jul 15, 2017
An "agglomeration" is not a technical demographic term. In the Boston case, to get to 7.55 million, you have to include the entire populations of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
arpacas
+1
Level 42
Jul 31, 2017
Please allow Saigon for Ho Chi Minh City in your quizzes
woshiwaiguoren
+1
Level 58
Sep 1, 2017
Please accept Saigon for HCM City, thank you!
anything22
+1
Level 46
Sep 9, 2017
Pls check the data of other sources too, they show a lot different
KRQC2000
+1
Level 45
Sep 15, 2017
So close at 49!!
Rassy8
+1
Level 32
Mar 21, 2018
Sad
leni
+1
Level 67
Oct 8, 2017
Baghdad's population is about 8.7 million...... Not on this list?
ChrisCurran21
+1
Level 53
Oct 12, 2017
Harbin, China. Over 9 Million
zupermaus
+1
Level 29
Oct 31, 2017
That's not an urban count, but takes in outlying towns also that lie within its jurisdiction (much like US metros). The contiguous city count for Harbin is 5.3 million.
zupermaus
+1
Level 29
Oct 31, 2017
Chongqing should be in there, it's city proper has 8.5 million

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chongqing

Also Baghdad, 8.765 million has swollen with refugees, up from 7 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad

and Xian, 8.55 million

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi%27an#Demographics

zupermaus
+1
Level 29
Oct 31, 2017
^and those aren;t agglomerations, but urban city proper counts.
betarad
+3
Level 32
Dec 4, 2017
i think "peking" should be accepted for beijing
Walacama
+4
Level 76
Feb 1, 2019
And New Amsterdam for New York.
JohnnyYeet
+2
Level 49
Jul 10, 2020
And Muscovy for Moscow and Constantinople for Istanbul lol
KRQC2000
+1
Level 45
Dec 11, 2017
FINALLY got 50/50 (with just one second left)!
FilipinoAmericaBall
+1
Level 43
Jan 17, 2018
44/50... but I forgot Beijing. Welp i give up ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Nick16
+2
Level 50
Jan 24, 2018
Boy this one takes a few tries, huh?
VALat19
+1
Level 17
Feb 17, 2018
This is not true: How can a city in Guangdong be #1
Findlay
+1
Level 73
Mar 14, 2018
49/50. Got Shantou... missed Beijing. Thirty seconds remaining and trying to work out which giant, 20 million plus metropolis I've missed. Was quite sure I'd already entered Beijing. Almost missed Ho Chi Minh, because I typed Saigon (which is how most people actually from there still refer to it) and it wasn't accepted.
GeoExtremeWiz
+1
Level 12
Aug 8, 2018
I also did saigon Got 48/50
Rassy8
+1
Level 32
Mar 21, 2018
Boston!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Milanthro
+2
Level 57
Jun 12, 2018
Nowhere can I find a source that states Xiamen has 10 million people. Even the source for this quiz shows an urban population of less than 4 million people. I have visited and that city is nowhere near that population. It isn't even the biggest city in Fujian Province.
lucykokoda20
+1
Level 55
Jul 4, 2018
Saigon for Ho Chi Minh?
PatoPotato
+1
Level 47
Dec 11, 2018
Not it's name though, like saying Leningrad or Petrograd for St Petersburg
NHG
+1
Level 32
Sep 17, 2020
It is the informal name that Vietnamese generally use, more so than Ho Chi Minh City. A very different situation to one where very few people still call St Petersburg Leningrad.
Djilas
+1
Level 78
Feb 16, 2019
Saigon is accepted, but it's not official name.
GeoExtremeWiz
+1
Level 12
Aug 8, 2018
I got 48/50 and I am in 5th grade

I missed Nagoya and some Chinese city.

I don't get how D.C is on this list I have been to d.c several times and it is not big

Quizmaster, please update the statistics of the city to make it better

Great JetPunk!!!

Moksha
+1
Level 21
Dec 4, 2018
Guangzhao's population is only about 13000, not 46000, get your facts straight please
zupermaus
+1
Level 29
Feb 6, 2019
GZ is the centre of the Pearl River City, which recently formed when GZ (14 million) connected up to Shenzhen (12 million) via Dongguan (8 million). 3 smaller cities also on the sides. The World Bank declared it the worlds biggest single, contiguous city in 2015. You can walk from one end to the other on city streets surrounded by buildings - or catch a commercial flight even.
PatoPotato
+1
Level 47
Dec 11, 2018
Missed L.A
mrnotok
+1
Level 20
Jan 13, 2019
Who in the world is "Kolkata"? Tried like 20 different spellings
MickSolo
+1
Level 28
Jan 18, 2019
San francisco has about a million citizens not 8
Walacama
+1
Level 76
Feb 1, 2019
Urban area, not city proper.
Walacama
+1
Level 76
Feb 1, 2019
I was focusing so hard on the Chinese and Indian cities that I forgot New York.
czcsanad
+1
Level 41
Feb 4, 2019
43/50 Not that bad, I guess. I missed 1 Indian and 6 Chinese cities.
VicEugene
+1
Level 26
Feb 14, 2019
Inaccurate data and information. Metro Manila population is only 21 million and that includes other provinces. Please check your source. And stop spreading fake information.
Djilas
+2
Level 78
Feb 16, 2019
Source checked. If you have a better one (for the whole world, not local), post it here.
Eliotbliss
+1
Level 72
Feb 27, 2019
49/50 only 4 points. Wow.
calvord
+1
Level 66
Mar 21, 2019
Houston is the fourth largest U.S. city and it is more populous than DC. I’ve been in DC the past 20 years and lived in Texas for more than 33 years before that. My Census contacts work in a dangerous area here and provide many federal employees with accurate data.
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Mar 21, 2019
I don't personally know any census employees, nor have I ever lived in Texas or DC. However, I don't believe that this matters. The source of the quiz is listed, and if you go there, they list their sources as well. Ultimately, this data is coming from the U.S. government.
Tummykong
+1
Level 67
Mar 21, 2019
The horrible website used as data for these quizzes utilizes broad "combined statistical areas" for populations, instead of more accurate "metropolitan statistical areas." So, one "city" in the U.S. can really cover most of an entire state's population.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Mar 21, 2019
The difference between CSAs and MSAs is just 10% employment interchange. 25% being the standard for the latter and 15% the standard for the former. Part of the reason why American cities can end up so huge is because in reality American urban areas are actually much more spread out than urban areas in much of the rest of the world. Americans own cars, they commute long distances to work, and cities in the USA are built with this in mind and realistically every major American city includes the sprawling network of suburbs around it. Often when two large cities in the USA are close together they start functioning as one large city, with substantial economic overlap and large numbers of people commuting back and forth between them for work in both directions. MSA and CSA designations both reflect this in roughly the same way, though the latter uses looser standards of connectivity and therefore ends up creating much larger areas.
Tummykong
+1
Level 67
Mar 22, 2019
Well, Washington DC's MSA is about 52% of its CSA, so I don't think your 10% estimate is very accurate.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Mar 24, 2019
It's entirely accurate. You just don't understand it. It's also not an estimate. It's the exact figure that they use. To include an area in a city's CSA it should have 15% employment interchange with the city (15% of the population commutes to work in one direction or the other). To include an area in a city's MSA it should have 25% employment interchange. This is a difference in 10% employment interchange. And it results in a significantly smaller area.
Tummykong
+1
Level 67
Mar 25, 2019
It's not that simple. For example, Washington DC's combined statistical area is 7,055,340, while the MSA is only 4,168,621 - that's a big difference. The MSA is a much more accurate measure of "city" population (at least in the U.S.).
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Mar 26, 2019
It's exactly that simple. I'm very sorry that you are having trouble wrapping your head around this.
DarraghH
+1
Level 35
Apr 12, 2019
It doesn’t let you just put LA in for Los Angeles
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Apr 21, 2019
Luanda moving up the rankings...
Vekoma
+1
Level 47
May 5, 2019
Somehow I missed Seoul and Taipei and that's it
kiwikiwiNZ
+1
Level 42
Jul 29, 2019
spent way too long trying to spell Ahmedabad...
samiamco
+1
Level 72
Aug 17, 2019
Geez – 28 average, and I only got 1 point at 27. Tough crowd!
Findlay
+1
Level 73
Jan 12, 2020
On my latest go at the latest version of this quiz I got 48/50, missing Chennai and Luanda. This despite having hung out with someone from Chennai just two nights ago. Oh well. It seems everyone of these larger list quizzes, there's always one obvious answer I miss. At least this time it was't Beijing like on a past attempt.
Marvel072506
+1
Level 39
Jan 24, 2020
Why is there so much complaining on this quiz? Just appreciate the fact that Quizmaster made this for us!
Damangio
+3
Level 56
Feb 6, 2020
I'm sure the number of people who get Wuhan is rising :-(
sixcentsi
+3
Level 27
Feb 7, 2020
Soon Wuhan wont make the list!
Germanwolverine
+3
Level 58
Feb 8, 2020
Wuhan-Makes the 50 most populated cities in the entire world list

Corona Virus-I'm gonna end this town's whole career

zupermaus
+2
Level 29
Apr 16, 2020
As of 2016, the central city of Chongqing (urban area, central) had 8.5 million. As of 2018 Wuhan had 9 million. Hangzhou now has 9.2 million (2019).

Chengdu 11,940,000 (2019)

BotswanaEmperor
+1
Level 57
Apr 28, 2020
Missed Tehran.
Vekoma
+1
Level 47
May 28, 2020
I got everything but Shenyang :/
divine
+1
Level 36
May 31, 2020
i SWEAR i typed in ho chi minh city but it said i didnt :(
TheLocalMilkMan
+1
Level 44
Aug 12, 2020
You sure you typed it right
badjetpunk
+1
Level 31
Jul 30, 2020
I got all correct but how is Guangzhou on top and how has Delhi not passed Shanghai?
Fuse
+1
Level 69
Jan 8, 2021
The Guangzhou Agglomeration, which has a population of 46,700,000 includes the cities of:

  1. Shēnzhèn - 13,374,300

  2. Guăngzhōu - 13,233,500

  3. Dōngguān - 7,795,800

  4. Fóshān - 7,750,700

  5. Zhōngshān - 2,987,900

  6. Jiāngmén - 1,650,000

This adds up to 46,792,200, which is around 46,700,000

turnbacktwo
+1
Level 33
Jan 22, 2021
Shenzhen is in the Shanghai urban area
YeahRocker
+1
Level 28
Aug 13, 2020
34/50 argh
Matty401
+1
Level 41
Sep 3, 2020
46/50 missed Taipei, Shenyang, Hangzhou and Kuala Lumpur
AresAnderson
+1
Level 36
Oct 27, 2020
how did I get Shenyang and miss Moscow smh
ptilinopus
+1
Level 44
Nov 15, 2020
The list cites the 2019 version of the website, but that version is no longer accessible - only the 2020 version. I suggest updating the quiz to match. It involves a few citiies changing places, and removed Riyadh in favour of Shenyang. Also, it gives local names and English names. Some of the English names are accepted, some are not. E.g., the list gives Tianjin=Tientsin, but this quiz rejects Tientsin. At the same time, it the quiz accepts Calcutta (=Kolkata). I suggest that all English names given be accepted alternates.
parkave
+1
Level 52
Nov 30, 2020
42/50 but i forget beijing smh
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