SNAPSHOTGlobal Urbanization, 1950–2014

In 1950, 29.6 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas, while by 2014 that figure had risen to 54 percent. This chart highlights the top twenty cities in terms of their population in those two years.14 What changes can you identify in the size of those cities and in their geographic distribution?

		1950			2014
Rank	City	Country	Population in millions	City	Country	Population in millions
1	New York City	USA	12.3	Tokyo	Japan	37.8
2	Tokyo	Japan	11.3	Delhi	India	24.9
3	London	UK	8.4	Shanghai	China	23.0
4	Paris	France	6.5	Mexico City	Mexico	20.84
5	Moscow	USSR	5.6	São Paulo	Brazil	20.83
6	Buenos Aires	Argentina	5.1	Mumbai	India	20.7
7	Chicago	USA	5.0	Osaka	Japan	20.1
8	Calcutta	India	4.5	Beijing	China	19.5
9	Shanghai	China	4.3	New York/Newark	USA	18.6
10	Osaka	Japan	4.2	Cairo	Egypt	18.4
11	Los Angeles	USA	4.0	Dhaka	Bangladesh	17.0
12	Berlin	Germany	3.3	Karachi	Pakistan	16.1
13	Philadelphia	USA	3.1	Buenos Aires	Argentina	15.0
14	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	2.95	Calcutta	India	14.8
15	Leningrad/St. Petersburg	USSR	2.9	Istanbul	Turkey	14.0
16	Mexico City	Mexico	2.88	Chongqing	China	12.9
17	Bombay/Mumbai	India	2.86	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	12.8
18	Detroit	USA	2.77	Manila	Philippines	12.76
19	Boston	USA	2.55	Lagos	Nigeria	12.6
20	Cairo	Egypt	2.5	Los Angeles area	USA	12.3