America Compared: The World’s Biggest Cities, 1800–2000

This table lists the ten largest cities in the world, by population in millions, at the start of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.

1800
City Population
Beijing, China 1.10 million
London, United Kingdom 0.86
Guangzhou, China 0.80
Istanbul, Turkey 0.57
Paris, France 0.55
Hangzhou, China 0.50
Edo (later Tokyo), Japan 0.49
Naples (later part of Italy) 0.43
Suzhou, China 0.39
Osaka, Japan 0.38
1900
City Population
London, United Kingdom 6.48 million
New York, United States 4.24
Paris, France 3.33
Berlin, Germany 2.42
Chicago, United States 1.72
Vienna, Austria 1.66
Tokyo, Japan 1.50
St. Petersburg, Russia 1.44
Philadelphia, United States 1.42
Manchester, United Kingdom 1.26
2000
City Population
Tokyo, Japan 34.45 million
Mexico City, Mexico 18.02
New York City/Newark, United States 17.85
São Paulo, Brazil 17.10
Mumbai (Bombay), India 16.09
Delhi, India 15.73
Shanghai, China 13.22
Calcutta, India 13.06
Buenos Aires, Argentina 11.85
Los Angeles, United States 11.81
Table 19.1: TABLE 19.1

QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS

  1. Question

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  2. Question

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