Across 150 years, familiar urban giants rise, fall, and give way to a new generation of megacities.
This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Gabriel Cohen, ranks the 15 most populous cities worldwide from 1950 to 2100 using population estimates from the European Commission’s JRC via Our World in Data. City boundaries were consistently defined based on satellite imagery and population data.
The Transatlantic Era
Tokyo led the 1950 ranking with 12.6 million people, followed by New York with 9.3 million.
The Big Apple was not the only massive Western city at the time. Of the 15 most populous cities in 1950, over half were found in either Europe or the Americas. This included London (7.9 million), Moscow (5.5 million), and Paris (5.4 million).
The table below ranks the 15 most populous cities in 1950:
RankCityPopulation in 1950(Millions)Region 1🇯🇵 Tokyo12.6Asia 2🇺🇸 New York City9.3North America 3🇯🇵 Osaka8.0Asia 4🇬🇧 London7.9Europe 5🇮🇳 Kolkata6.1Asia 6🇷🇺 Moscow5.5Europe 7🇫🇷 Paris5.4Europe 8🇦🇷 Buenos Aires4.6South America 9🇺🇸 Los Angeles4.0North America 10🇮🇩 Jakarta3.9Asia 11🇮🇳 Mumbai3.8Asia 12🇲🇽 Mexico City3.7North America 13🇪🇬 Cairo3.1Africa 14🇨🇳 Shanghai3
