In a landmark shift in global urban rankings, Jakarta has officially overtaken Tokyo to become the most populous city in the world, according to a new report released by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). The latest 2025 “World Urbanisation Prospects 2025” estimates that Jakarta is now home to nearly 42 million people, placing it at the top of global urban centres.
The city now sits ahead of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, which has risen sharply to the second spot with roughly 37 million inhabitants. Tokyo — long considered the world’s largest metropolis — has slipped to third place under the new count, with about 33 million people living in its broader metropolitan area.
This dramatic re-ordering comes not just from population growth but from a revamped methodology adopted by the United Nations. Previous assessments relied on varying national definitions of what constitutes a “city.” The 2025 report, however, uses a consistent, data-driven approach: any continuous urban area composed of one-kilometre grid cells with at least 1,500 inhabitants per square kilometre and a minimum total population of 50,000 qualifies. This standardised definition — which groups the city proper with its surrounding suburbs and satellite towns — provides greater comparability across nations.
The broader findings underscore how rapid urbanisation has reshaped human settlement patterns worldwide. Since 1950, when only 20 per cent of the world’s roughly 2.5 billion people lived in cities, the share has surged to nearly 45 per cent of today’s 8.2 billion population. The number of megacities — defined as urban agglomerations with over 10 million residents — has quadrupled from eight in 1975 to 33 in 2025. Significantly, Asia now hosts the majority of these metropolises.
According to the report, the top ten most populous cities are overwhelmingly Asian: Jakarta, Dhaka, Tokyo, New Delhi, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Cairo, Manila, Kolkata and Seoul. The dominance of Asian cities reflects broader demographic trends shaping the 21st-century urban landscape.
With this leap, Jakarta isn’t just a statistical frontrunner: it symbolises the massive urban growth challenge facing many emerging cities. Rapid population concentration demands urgent attention to infrastructure, housing, transportation, environmental sustainability and social equity. As the UN notes, urbanisation is now “a defining force of our time,” one that could — if managed inclusive and strategically — open transformative pathways for climate resilience, economic opportunity and social wellbeing.
