List of metropolitan areas in Asia

Asia is one of the world's fastest-growing continents, with increasing urbanisation and a high growth rate for cities. Tokyo, in Japan, is the world's largest metropolitan area by population.

The populations of the given cities are obtained from five sources:

• Cities
• World Atlas
• National Official Estimate (NOE)

Out of these five sources, the highest estimate is shown in bold. The cities are ranked on the basis of their highest estimate of population. Some remarks:

• The official statistics for Chinese cities are for municipalities which usually extend well beyond the urban areas and comprise a substantial rural population. When such statistics exceed the estimated figures, as in the case for Chongqing, Wuhan and Shenyang, they are not taken into account.
• The figure for Shanghai from City Population includes the city of Suzhou (some 100 km or 62 miles northwest of Shanghai), which is not included in other estimates or in the official statistics and therefore is not taken into account.
• The figure for Guangzhou from City Population is for the urban population of the Guangdong province, also which includes the cities Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Huizhou. The area has not yet been developed into a single metropolitan area and therefore this figure is not taken into account. Shenzhen and Dongguan are listed separately in this table.
• Demographia and world Atlas give figures for the contiguous cities of Quanzhou, Jinjiang and Shishi. City Population includes these three cities in its figures for Xiamen (population 4-4.8 million), giving a total population of 10,000,000. However, Xiamen is not actually contiguous with the three other cities and this statistic is not taken into account.
• The figure for Delhi from City Population includes the cities of Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, which are not included in other estimates or in the official statistics and therefore is not taken into account.
• The figure for Mumbai from City Population includes the cities of Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Vasai-Virar which are not included in other estimates or in the official statistics and therefore is not taken into account.

The table is color-coded to show which region of Asia each city is in. The color-code key is as follows:

East Asia    South Asia    Southeast Asia    West Asia

With twenty cities, East Asia accounts for half of cities under this list, with China having the most with fifteen cities, South Asia comes second with ten cities, seven of which are in India. Southeast Asia accounts for seven cities and West Asia with just four cities.

List

Area	Image	Country	Metro Population (2024 est.) [1]	Demographia (2017 est.) [2]	UN WC (2016 est.) [3]	World Atlas (2017 est.) [4]	Official or Other	Est. Year
Guangzhou		China	70,100,000 [5]	19,075,000	Guangzhou 13,070,000 [6] Foshan 7,089,000 [6]	20,597,000	12,700,800 [7]	–
Mumbai		India	27,100,000	23,355,000	21,357,000 [6]	17,712,000	47,800,000 [8]	2001
Tokyo		Japan	41,000,000	37,977,000	38,140,000 [9]	37,843,000	31,714,000 [10]	2005
Delhi		India	34,600,000	29,617,000	26,454,000 [6]	24,998,000	41,034,555 [11] [12]	2011
Shanghai		China	40,800,000	23,390,000	24,484,000 [11]	23,416,000	23,019,148 [13]	2010
Jakarta		Indonesia	29,200,000	14,540,000	10,483,000 [11]	30,539,000	15,519,545 [14]	2010
Manila		Philippines	27,200,000	24,245,000	13,131,000 [6]	24,123,000	11,553,427 [15]	2007
Seoul		South Korea	25,100,000	21,794,000	Seoul 9,979,000 [11] Incheon 2,711,000 [11]	23,480,000	26,015,868 [16]	2007
Dhaka		Bangladesh	22,500,000	16,820,000	18,237,000 [9]	15,669,000	12,797,394 [17]	2008
Beijing		China	21,200,000	20,415,000	21,240,000 [6]	21,009,000	19,612,368 [18]	2010
Bangkok		Thailand	21,200,000	15,645,000	9,440,000 [9]	14,998,000	8,249,117 [19]	2010
Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto (Keihanshin)		Japan	17,700,000	17,075,000	20,337,000 [9]	17,440,000	16,663,000 [10]	2005
Kolkata		India	18,560,853	18,560,853	18,560,853 [6]	18,560,853	–	–
Chengdu		China	17,300,000	11,050,000	7,820,000 [6]	10,376,000	–	–
Tehran		Iran	16,500,000	13,805,000	8,516,000 [11]	13,532,000	13,422,366 [20]	2006
Istanbul [21]		Turkey	15,900,000	15,154,000	14,365,000 [11]	14,163,989	15,519,267 [22]	2019
Bangalore		India	14,200,000	10,535,000	10,456,000 [6]	8,728,906	8,499,399	2011 [23]
Ho Chi Minh City		Vietnam	13,900,000	10,380,000	7,498,000 [6]	8,957,000	7,955,000	2016
Hangzhou		China	13,900,000	6,820,000	–	7,275,000	–	–
Chongqing		China	10,900,000	7,990,000	13,744,000 [6]	7,217,000	28,846,170 [24] [25]	2010
Tianjin		China	11,500,000	13,245,000	11,558,000 [6]	10,920,000	12,938,224 [26]	–
Chennai		India	12,600,000	12,395,000	10,163,000 [6]	9,714,000	8,696,010	2022 [23]
Shenzhen		China	included in Guangzhou	12,775,000	10,828,000	12,084,000 [6]	10,357,938 [27]	–
Wuhan		China	12,200,000	7,895,000	7,979,000 [6]	7,509,000	9,785,392 [28] [29]	–
Hyderabad		India	11,400,000	9,305,000	9,218,000 [6]	8,754,000	–	–
Nagoya		Japan	10,500,000	10,070,000	9,434,000 [9]	10,177,000	9,046,000 [10]	2005
Taipei		Taiwan	9,950,000	8,550,000	2,669,000 [6]	7,438,000	8,916,653 [20]	2010
Zhengzhou-Xingyang		China	9,800,000	7,005,000	4,539,000 [6]	4,942,000	–	–
Ahmedabad		India	9,600,000	7,645,000	7,571,000 [6]	7,186,000	–	–
Kuala Lumpur		Malaysia	9,300,000	7,590,000	7,047,000 [6]	7,088,000	1,768.00 [30] [31]	2015
Nanjing		China	9,300,000	6,320,000	–	6,155,000	–	–
Shenyang		China	8,700,000	7,935,000	6,438,000 [6]	6,078,000	8,106,171 [32]	–
Dongguan		China	Included in Guangzhou	8,310,000	7,469,000 [6]	8,442,000	–	–
Hanoi		Vietnam	7,150,000	7,785,000	3,790,000 [6]	3,715,000	–	–
Singapore		Singapore	7,850,000	5,825,000	5,717,000 [6]	5,624,000	5,607,300 [33]	2017
Baghdad		Iraq	7,650,000	6,960,000	6,811,000 [6]	6,625,000	–	–
Riyadh		Saudi Arabia	7,500,000	6,030,000	6,540,000 [11]	5,666,000	6,506,000	2014
Hong Kong		China	7,250,000	7,330,000	–	7,246,000 [6]	7,246,000	–
Quanzhou-Shishi-Jinjiang		China	Included in Xiamen [34]	6,480,000	1,469,000 [6]	6,710,000	–	–

See also

•   Asiaportal
•   Citiesportal
•   Geographyportal

References

1. Brinkhoff, Thomas (1 January 2024). "The Principal Agglomerations of the World". CityPopulation. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
2. "Demographia World Urban Areas 13 Th Annual Edition: 2017:04" (PDF). Retrieved 2 August 2017.
3. "World cities in 2016: Data Booklet" (PDF). The United Nations: Population Division. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
4. "World's Largest Cities". Archived from the original on 28 August 2017. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
5. This figure is for the urban population of the Guangdong province, which includes Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, and Huizhou, which has not yet been developed into a single metropolitan area
6. Urban Agglomeration
7. 广州市2010年第六次全国人口普查主要数据公报 (in Chinese). Statistics Bureau of Guangzhou. 16 May 2011. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
8. "Basic Statistics for Mumbai". MMRDA: Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
9. Metropolitan Area
10. "Table 2.10 Population of Three Major Metropolitan Areas" (PDF). Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (Japan). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 November 2009. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
11. City proper
12. "Delhi Population 2022 | Sex Ratio & Literacy rate 2024". www.census2011.co.in.
13. "Shanghai sixth national census in 2010 Communiqué on Major Data, Chinese: 上海市2010年第六次全国人口普查主要数据公报". Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau. 3 May 2011. Archived from the original on 26 November 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
14. "Statistics Indonesia". Archived from the original on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2010. BPS:Hari Statistik Nasional Sensus Penduduk 2010 (Official 2010 Census Figures), Summed from definition
15. "Metro Manila at a glance". Metropolitan Manila Development Authority. Retrieved 25 August 2009.^{[ dead link ]}
16. "Seoul National Capital Area Statistics" (in Korean). Korean National Statistical Office. Retrieved 6 November 2009.
17. "Statistical Pocket Book, 2008" (PDF). Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2009. Retrieved 28 August 2009.
18. "Communiqué of the National Bureau of Statistics of People's Republic of China on Major Figures of the 2010 Population Census". National Bureau of Statistics of China. Archived from the original on 27 July 2013.
19. "National Statistical Office of Thailand" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 May 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
20. "Monthly Bulletin of Interior Statistics 2011.4". Department of Statistics, Ministry of the Interior, Taiwan/R.O.C. Archived from the original on 29 March 2014.
21. Istanbul is a transcontinental city straddling Eurasia. The majority of its residents live in the commercial and historical centre on the European side, and about a third of its population lives in suburbs on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, however the population figure includes the whole city.
22. "The Results of Address Based Population Registration System (2019)". Turkish Statistical Institute. 31 December 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
23. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/paper2/data_files/India2/Table_3_PR_UA_Citiees_1Lakh_and_Above.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}
24. 2010 Census
25. Figure for the municipality which extend well beyond the urban area (31,816 sq mi)
26. "Communiqué of the National Bureau of Statistics of People's Republic of China on Major Figures of the 2010 Population Census[1] (No. 2)". National Bureau of Statistics of China. 29 April 2011. Archived from the original on 27 July 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
27. 深圳市2010年第六次全国人口普查主要数据公报[1] (in Chinese). Shenzhen Municipal Statistic Bureau. 12 May 2014. Archived from the original on 4 August 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
28. "武汉市2010年第六次全国人口普查主要数据公报". Wuhan Statistics Bureau. 10 May 2011. Archived from the original on 25 October 2011. Retrieved 31 July 2011.
29. Figure for the municipality which extend well beyond the urban area (3,279.71 sq mi)
30. Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur
31. Population projections for 2015
32. "武汉市2010年第六次全国人口普查主要数据公报". Shenyang Statistics Bureau. 20 May 2011. Archived from the original on 15 August 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
33. Statistic Singapore Archived 29 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 2014/08/02
34. City Population includes these three cities in its figures for Xiamen (population 4-4.8 million), giving a total population of 10,000,000. However Xiamen is not actually contiguous