Home > Asia > Largest cities
Tokyo, capital of Japan   Many of the major cities in the world are located in Asia, on the other hand over 60% of the population lives on this continent, with China and India which alone have now exceeded two billion and seven hundred million inhabitants.

   The following ranking is ordered by the number of inhabitants of urban agglomerations, fact that reflects more reality than that of administrative borders, as over time, in most cases, cities have expanded far beyond these limits, incorporating into the urban area other neighboring cities previously separated from the main center by rural or uninhabited areas; however, the data relating to the population of the city alone is also presented, excluding its conurbation, which in some cases coincides with the previous one, as the city borders may have been redefined in the meantime.

   In some countries, especially China, the municipalities are very large and often include rural / wooded areas, for example Chongqing, which has about 29 million inhabitants, but on an area of 82,403 kmē, in fact similar to a region more than a real city, in these cases only the inhabitants of the urban area contiguous to the city center are counted.

   Tokyo at the moment is the most populous metropolis of the entire planet, considering the urban agglomeration, but there are other cities with much higher growth rates that in the future should contend with it for this supremacy.

   The list obviously includes a large number of cities in China and India, but there are large metropolises all over the continent, even in less populated areas, such as the Arabian Peninsula; none in Asian part of Russia.


City Urban aggl.  Population Urban area Country Other cities in urban area
Tokyo 37,785,000 9,733,000 8,775 Kmē Japan Yokohama, Kawasaki,
Saitama, Chiba
Jakarta 35,386,000 10,685,000 3,546 Kmē Indonesia Bekasi, Tangerang, Depok,
Tangerang Selatan, Bogor
Delhi 31,190,000 11,035,000 2,344 Kmē India Ghaziabad, Faridabad,
Gurgaon, Noida
Guangzhou 27,119,000 16,097,000 4,543 Kmē China Foshan
Mumbai 25,189,000 12,442,000 1,046 Kmē India Vasai-Virar, Bhiwandi
Manila 24,156,000 1,847,000 1,911 Kmē Philippines Quezon City, Caloocan, Taguig
Shanghai 24,042,000 21,910,000 4,333 Kmē China  
Seoul 23,225,000 9,659,000 2,769 Kmē South Korea Incheon, Suwon, Goyang, Yongin
Kolkata 21,747,000 4,497,000 1,352 Kmē India  
Karachi 20,383,000 20,383,000 1,124 Kmē Pakistan  
Dhaka 19,134,000 10,295,000 619 Kmē Bangladesh Gazipur, Narayanganj
Bangkok 18,884,000 5,459,000 3,199 Kmē Thailand Nonthaburi, Pak Kret
Beijing 18,883,000 18,883,000 4,284 Kmē China  
Shenzhen 17,778,000 17,445,000 1,808 Kmē China  
Istanbul 15,306,000 15,306,000 1,471 Kmē Turkey  
Bangalore 15,257,000 8,495,000 1,743 Kmē India  
Chengdu 15,016,000 13,568,000 1,935 Kmē China  
Ho Chi Minh City 14,953,000 7,005,000 2,165 Kmē Vietnam Bien Hoa
Osaka 14,916,000 2,752,000 3,020 Kmē Japan Kobe, Kyoto, Sakai, Himeji
Lahore 13,504,000 13,004,000 945 Kmē Pakistan  
Tehran 13,382,000 8,694,000 1,704 Kmē Iran Karaj
Chongqing 12,653,000 9,581,000 1,580 Kmē China  
Xi'an 12,211,000 9,393,000 1,826 Kmē China  
Chennai 11,570,000 4,647,000 1,225 Kmē India  
Zhengzhou 11,068,000 6,461,000 1,785 Kmē China  
Dongguan 10,753,000 9,645,000 1,759 Kmē China  
Wuhan 10,353,000 10,353,000 1,821 Kmē China  
Tianjin 10,047,000 10,047,000 2,813 Kmē China  
Hyderabad 9,797,000 6,993,000 1,689 Kmē India  
Taipei 9,662,000 2,481,000 1,090 Kmē Taiwan New Taipei, Taoyuan
Hangzhou 9,618,000 9,236,000 1,344 Kmē China  
Nagoya 9,439,000 2,332,000 3,704 Kmē Japan Toyota, Gifu, Okazaki, Ichinomiya
Kuala Lumpur 9,387,000 2,076,000 2,163 Kmē Malaysia Subang Jaya, Klang,
Shah Alam, Petaling Jaya
Nanjing 8,507,000 7,520,000 1,614 Kmē China  
Riyadh 8,309,000 6,925,000 1,673 Kmē Saudi Arabia  
Shenyang 8,044,000 7,026,000 1,551 Kmē China Fushun
Ahmedabad 8,006,000 5,634,000 505 Kmē India  
Hong Kong 7,503,000 7,503,000 290 Kmē China  
Bandung 7,203,000 2,444,000 487 Kmē Indonesia Cimahi
Pune 6,819,000 3,124,000 650 Kmē India  
Quanzhou 6,743,000 1,469,000 2,248 Kmē China Jinjiang, Nan'an, Shishi
Baghdad 6,624,000 6,624,000 694 Kmē Iraq  
Surat 6,601,000 4,502,000 293 Kmē India  
Amman 6,563,000 4,165,000 855 Kmē Jordan  
Surabaya 6,556,000 2,874,000 912 Kmē Indonesia  
Yangon 6,426,000 4,729,000 666 Kmē Myanmar  
Hanoi 6,359,000 3,605,000 1,256 Kmē Vietnam  
Qingdao 6,291,000 6,165,000 1,759 Kmē China  
Suzhou 6,091,000 5,893,000 1,386 Kmē China  
Singapore 5,918,000 5,918,000 523 Kmē Singapore  
Kabul 5,566,000 4,981,000 272 Kmē Afghanistan  
Jiddah 5,408,000 3,713,000 1,261 Kmē Saudi Arabia  
Ankara 5,359,000 5,166,000 671 Kmē Turkey  
Faisalabad 5,356,000 3,210,000 313 Kmē Pakistan  
Xiamen 5,253,000 4,617,000 715 Kmē China  
Taiyuan 5,067,000 4,304,000 886 Kmē China  
Changsha 5,065,000 5,065,000 754 Kmē China  
Hefei 5,052,000 5,052,000 894 Kmē China  
Mashhad 5,045,000 3,001,000 474 Kmē Iran  


* data on urban agglomerations updated to 2023 (estimates), those on population according to official data or more recent estimates of the national statistical services, when different from urban agglomerations.