Asia is the largest part of the world, which is washed by three oceans. The vast territory of the part of the world is occupied by 54 states (5 of which are partially recognized). Asia is one of the very first parts of the world, distinguished since ancient times, from about the 10th-11th centuries BC.

The region of Asia Minor has long been distinguished - the westernmost part of Asia, which is a peninsula known as modern Turkey. The region is washed by four seas and in ancient times was called Anatolia (from Greek - "east"). It is noteworthy that the Asian part of Turkey is still called Anatolia (Anadolu).

Part of the World Asia

More than half of the world's population lives in the largest part of the world, and, accordingly, it is here that the largest cities in the world are located. The area of ​​Asian territory is 43.4 million square kilometers, and it is home to 4.2 billion people of different nationalities and religions. A real oriental bazaar of cultural curiosities. It is worth emphasizing that at present this is the most dynamically developing region in the world, the so-called "Asian economic miracle".

The largest cities in Asia

A third of the largest cities are located in China, which is not surprising, since this is the country with the largest number of inhabitants. Below is a list of the largest Asian metropolitan areas with populations over 3,500,000. Thus, the 40 largest cities in Asia are:

Shanghai (China) - 17.8 million people. Shanghai is the "Asian tiger", the largest and most economically developed city in Asia.
Istanbul (Turkey) - 13.6 million people. Istanbul (former Constantinople) is a beautiful ancient city and cultural center of the country, which has a strategically important location.
Karachi (Pakistan) - 13.2 million people.
Mumbai (formerly Bombay, India) - 12.4 million inhabitants.
Beijing (China) - 11.7 million inhabitants. The current capital of China and one of the most beautiful ancient cities of the Celestial Empire.
Guangzhou (China) -11 million inhabitants. One of the largest trading cities in the country.
Delhi (India) - 11 million people. Capital of India.
Dhaka (Bangladesh) - 10.8 million inhabitants.
Lahore (Pakistan) - 10.5 million inhabitants.
Shenzhen (China) - 10.5 million people.
Seoul (Republic of Korea) - 10.4 million people. Capital of South Korea.
Jakarta (Indonesia) - 9.7 million people. Capital of Indonesia.
Tianjin (China) - 9.3 million people.
Tokyo (Japan) - 8.9 million people. Capital of Japan.
Bangalore (India) - 8.4 million people.
Bangkok (Thailand) - 8.2 million people. Capital of Thailand.
Tehran (Iran) - 8.2 million people. Capital of Iran.
Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) - 7.1 million people.
Hong Kong (China) - 7.1 million people. Hong Kong, like Shanghai, is the "Asian tiger". In the middle of the last century it was a fishing village.
Hanoi (Vietnam) - 6.8 million people. Capital of Vietnam.
Hyderabad (India) - 6.8 million people.
Wuhan (China) - 6.4 million people.
Ahmedabad (India) - 5.6 million people.
Baghdad (Iraq) - 5.4 million people. Capital of Iraq.
Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) - 5.2 million people. Capital of Saudi Arabia.
Singapore (Singapore) - 5.2 million people. The island-state-city of the same name.
Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) - 5.1 million inhabitants.
Ankara (Turkey) - 4.9 million people.
Chennai (India) - 4.6 million inhabitants.
Yangon (Myanmar) - 4.6 million people.
Chongqing (China) - 4.5 million inhabitants.
Kolkata (India) - 4.5 million people.
Nanjing (China) - 4.4 million inhabitants.
Harbin (China) - 4.3 million people.
Pyongyang (DPRK) - 4.1 million inhabitants. Capital of the DPRK.
Xi'an (China) - 4 million people.
Chengdu (China) - 3.9 million inhabitants.
Xinbei (China) - 3.8 million people.
Chittagong (Bangladesh) - 3.8 million people.
Yokohama (Japan) - 3.6 million inhabitants.

The role of the city in the life of a modern person is growing: many people no longer see development prospects for themselves outside of it. Scientists call this phenomenon urbanization. What are the most populated cities in the world? In this article you will find a list of the largest cities in the world.

Urbanization and its current scale

Urbanization refers to the growing role of the city in society. The word urbanus is translated from Latin as "urban".

Modern urbanization can take place in three ways:

1. The transformation of villages and villages into small and medium-sized cities.
2. The outflow of population from villages to cities.
3. Formation of extensive suburban residential areas.

The world's most populated cities are often held hostage to their oversized size. Bad ecology, a huge amount of transport on the streets, a lack of green spaces and recreation areas, constant noise pollution - all this, of course, negatively affects the health (physical and mental) of a person, a resident of a metropolis.

The processes of urbanization, according to scientists, began around the middle of the 19th century. But then they were local, local in nature. They reached the global level a century later - in the 50s of the twentieth century. At this time, the urban population of the planet is growing rapidly, the largest megacities of our time are being formed.

If in 1950 the share of the urban population on the planet was only 30%, then in 2000 it had already reached 45%. Today, the level of global urbanization is about 57%.

The most urbanized countries on the planet are Luxembourg (100%), Belgium (98%), Great Britain (90%), Australia (88%) and Chile (88%).

The most populated cities in the world

In fact, it is quite difficult to determine the population of a large city. Firstly, researchers are not always able to obtain up-to-date and reliable statistical information (especially when it comes to megacities of third world countries - Asia, Africa or Latin America).

Secondly, the approaches to counting the number of city residents can be different. Thus, some demographers do not take into account people living in the suburban area, while others ignore temporary labor migrants. That is why it is very difficult to name exactly the most populated city in the world.

Another problem faced by demographers and statisticians is the problem of defining the boundaries of a metropolitan area. To solve it, a very interesting method has recently been invented. To do this, a picture of the settlement is taken from the air, in the evening. Then the boundaries of the city can be easily drawn along the edge of the distribution of urban lighting.

Top most populated cities in the world

In ancient times, Jericho was considered the largest (in terms of population) city on the planet. About 2 thousand people lived in it nine thousand years ago. Today, this is the number of inhabitants in a large village and a small European town.

The total number of inhabitants living in the ten most populated cities on the planet is almost 260 million people! In other words, this is 4% of the total population of the Earth.

1. Tokyo (Japan, 37.7 million people);
2. Jakarta (Indonesia, 29.9);
3. Chongqing (China, 29.0);
4. Delhi (India, 24.2);
5. Manila (Philippines, 22.8);
6. Shanghai (China, 22.6);
7. Karachi (Venezuela, 21.7);
8. New York (United States of America, 20.8);
9. Mexico City (Mexico, 20.5).

Six out of ten of these cities are located in Asia, with 2 in China. It is worth noting that the largest city in Europe, Moscow, would take only 17th place in this rating. About 16 million people live in the capital of the Russian Federation.

Tokyo, Japan)

The capital of Japan is by far the most populated city in the world, with a population of at least 37 million people. For comparison: this is the number of inhabitants in all of Poland!

Today Tokyo is not only the largest metropolis, but also the most important financial, industrial and cultural center of East Asia. The world's largest subway operates here: it transports at least 8 million passengers a day. Tokyo will amaze any traveler with a huge number of faceless, gray streets and alleys. Some of them don't even have their own names.

Surprisingly, the largest metropolis on the planet is located in a seismically unstable zone. About a hundred fluctuations of different intensity are recorded in Tokyo every year.

Chongqing (China)

Chinese Chongqing belongs to the absolute world championship among cities in terms of territory. It occupies the same area as the state of Austria in Europe - 82,000 square kilometers.

The metropolis has an almost perfect round shape: 470 by 460 kilometers. About 29 million Chinese live here. However, since a large number of them live in the suburban area, some extras sometimes do not include Chongqing in the lists of the most populated cities in the world.

In addition to its colossal size, the city also boasts an ancient history. After all, it is over 3,000 years old. Chongqing arose at the confluence of two Chinese rivers, surrounded by three picturesque hills.

New York, USA)

New York, although not the largest city in terms of population on the planet, but it can be considered the most popular world metropolis.

The city is often referred to as the Big Apple. Why? Everything is very simple: according to one of the legends, it was the apple tree that was the first to take root within the boundaries of the future metropolis.

New York is an important financial center of the world; about 700 thousand (!) different companies are located here. At least 6,000 subway cars and about 13,000 taxi cars serve the residents of the city every day. By the way, it is no coincidence that local taxis are painted yellow. The founder of a shipping company once did a special study trying to determine which color is the most pleasing to the human eye. It turned out that it was yellow.

Conclusion

An amazing fact: if you collect all the inhabitants of the 10 most populated cities in the world, you get a number that is almost twice the total population of Russia! In addition, these already huge metropolitan areas continue to grow.

The most populated cities in the world are Tokyo, Jakarta, Chongqing, Delhi and Seoul. All of them are located in Asia.

Asia got its name from ancient Greek mythology. Once upon a time, Asia (Asia) was the daughter of the titan god Oceanid, who became the wife of Prometheus. The ancient Greeks borrowed the word "Asia" from the Assyrians, who called it the place where the sun rises. Therefore, the Greeks began to call the territory that lies to the east of Greece Asia.

In modern Asia, states are at different levels of development. If Bangladesh and Afghanistan are firmly stuck in the Middle Ages, then South Korea, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan are countries with developed economies.

Asia is the largest continent on earth. Its total area is more than 43.4 million square meters. km (this is 30% of the Earth's territory). Asia is considered part of the Eurasian Peninsula.

In the west, the border of Asia runs along the Ural Mountains. In the north, Asia is washed by the waters of the Arctic Ocean, in the east by the Pacific Ocean (East China, Bering, Okhotsk, South China, Japan and Yellow Seas), and in the south by the waters of the Indian Ocean (Arabian Sea).

In addition, the shores of Asia are also washed by the waters of the Red and Mediterranean Seas.

Since Asia occupies a vast territory, it is clear that the climate on this continent is very diverse. In Western and Eastern Siberia, the climate is continental, in Central and Central Asia - desert and semi-desert, in Eastern, Southern, and also in Southeast Asia - monsoonal (monsoon season - June-October), in some regions equatorial, and in the far north - arctic.

Among the Asian rivers, one should, of course, name the Yangtze (6300 km), the Yellow River (5464 km), the Ob (5410 km), the Mekong (4500 km), the Amur (4440 km), the Lena (4400) and the Yenisei (4092 km). ).

The five largest lakes in Asia include the following: the Aral Sea, Baikal, Balkhash, Tonle Sap and Issyk-Kul.

Much of Asia is mountains. It is in Asia that the Himalayas, the Pamirs, the Hindu Kush, the Altai and the Sayan Mountains are located. The largest mountain in Asia is Everest (Chomolungma), its height is 8,848 meters.

Travelers in Asia are waiting for numerous deserts, among which, perhaps, it is necessary to single out the Gobi, Takla-Makan, Karakum and the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. In total, there are more than 20 deserts in Asia.

At the moment, the population of Asia already exceeds 4.3 billion people. This is about 60% of the total population of the Earth. At the same time, the annual population growth in Asia is about 2%.

Almost the entire population of Asia belongs to the Mongoloid race, which, in turn, is divided into small races - North Asian, Arctic, South Asian and Far Eastern. In Iraq, in the territory of southern Iran and northern India, the Indo-Mediterranean race predominates. In addition, there are many other races in Asia, such as Caucasian and Negroid.

On the territory of Asia, 55 states are fully or partially located (of which 5 are the so-called unrecognized republics). The largest Asian country is China (its territory occupies 9,596,960 sq. km), and the smallest is the Maldives (300 sq. km).

In terms of population, China (1.39 billion people) is ahead of all countries in the world. Other Asian countries have fewer inhabitants: India, 1.1 billion, Indonesia, 230 million, and Bangladesh, 134 million.

The territory of Asia is so large that politicians, journalists or scientists sometimes divide it into the Middle East, Western Asia and the Far East. However, geographically Asia is more correctly divided into 5 regions:

East Asia (China, Japan, South and North Korea and Mongolia);
- Western Asia (Armenia, Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Yemen, Qatar, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Turkey);
- Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, East Timor, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Myanmar);
- South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka);
- Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan).

Asian cities are the most densely populated in the world. The largest of all cities in Asia is Bombay (India), whose population is already more than 12.2 million people. Other major cities in Asia are Seoul, Jakarta, Karachi, Manila, Delhi, Shanghai, Tokyo, Beijing and Tehran.