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What is the largest city in Asia?

Jakarta, Indonesia, with nearly 42 million people, is the largest city in Asia and the world under the UN's 2025 figures, ahead of Dhaka and Tokyo. Older rankings put Tokyo first.

The answer has recently changed, because the United Nations changed how it measures cities. In its World Urbanization Prospects 2025, the UN used a new method that defines a city by continuous built-up area and population density on a grid, rather than by each country's own administrative boundaries. On that basis:

The rest of the world's top ten is also nearly all Asian: New Delhi, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Manila, Kolkata and Seoul. The only non-Asian city in the top ten is Cairo. More than half of the world's 33 megacities (over 10 million people) are in Asia.

Why many sources still say Tokyo

Under the UN's previous method, Greater Tokyo was the world's largest urban area for decades, with about 37 million people. Most older articles and rankings still use that figure. Tokyo's population is now stable or falling slightly, while Jakarta and Dhaka are growing fast.

Largest city proper

Counting only people inside official city limits gives a different answer again. Chongqing in China is sometimes called the world's largest city, with about 32 million residents at the 2020 census, but its municipality covers an area the size of Austria and is mostly rural. Among cities whose boundaries mostly cover urban land, Shanghai (about 24.9 million at the 2020 census) is the largest in Asia.

Check travel distances between Asia's great cities, for example Jakarta to Tokyo or Beijing to Shanghai, or use the Asia distance calculator.

City populations: UN DESA, World Urbanization Prospects 2025 (urban agglomerations); Shanghai and Chongqing: China 2020 census.