Population tables of world cities

World's largest cities

World's largest cities proper

World's largest municipalities

World's largest urban areas

World's largest metropolitan areas

World's largest conurbations

World's largest urban agglomerations

World megacities

World megalopolises

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This article ranks the world's largest cities, in population or land area, using a variety of ranking methods.

Ambiguities in measuring the "size" of a city[link]

The question of determining the world's largest cities does not allow a single, simple answer. It depends on which definitions of "city" and "size" are used, and how those definitions are applied. Complex political/cultural/social situations, sometimes controversial or disputed, further confuse the discussion. Debate on this field is highly vulnerable to bias or manipulation, as people tend to prefer whichever definition most flatters their own city.

The "size" of a city can refer to either its land area or, more typically, its population.

The boundaries of a city can also be defined in any of several ways:

Morphological

"City" defined as a physically contiguous urban area, without regard to territorial or other boundaries. The delineation is usually done using some type of urban density, such as population density or density of buildings (for example, "gaps between structures may not exceed 200 metres"). Satellite and/or aerial maps may be used. For statistical convenience, such areas are sometimes adjusted to appropriate administrative boundaries, yielding an agglomeration.

Functional

"City" as defined by the habits of its demographic population, as by metropolitan area, labour market area, or similar. Such definitions are usually based on commuting between home and work. Commuter flow thresholds into the core urban area are established by the national census authority, determining which areas are included.

City Proper (Administrative)

"City" as strictly defined by a given government (city proper). Typically based on a municipality or equivalent entity, or sometimes a group of municipalities under a regional government.

Cities making the top 20 in a list[link]

The numbers after each cell give the ranking of that city in that list. This table is designed to be a way to compare the different lists and discover which cities are well-recognised by all of them, without favouring one list over the others. Rankings in bold are the rankings of the cities in the top 20 of each sources' list. The first four columns are the four different lists used by Wikipedia; after them, external sources are given.

City	Country	Morph.	Morph. (UN)	Funct.	Proper	WorldAtlas	World Gazetteer	City Population
Beijing	China	16	13	19	9	12	23	16
Bogotá	Colombia	31	30	1000	20	30	36	33
Buenos Aires	Argentina	20	11	17	59	10	16	19
Cairo	Egypt	11	17	16	25	17	13	18
Delhi	India	2	2	8	4	15	9	5
Dhaka	Bangladesh	24	9	1000	24	15	18	20
Guangzhou	China	23	28	1000	26	44	61	2
Istanbul	Turkey	19	20	1000	5	23	17	22
Jakarta	Indonesia	4	24	6	12	21	8	11
Karachi	Pakistan	18	10	20	3	13	22	13
Kinshasa	Democratic Republic of the Congo	29	29	1000	17	46	28	31
Kolkata	India	13	8	14	44	9	14	15
Lagos	Nigeria	25	18	1000	15	7	19	25
Lima	Peru	30	27	1000	18	26	40	32
London	United Kingdom	32	30	18	19	25	20	24
Los Angeles	United States	15	12	13	47	8	11	12
Manila	Philippines	5	15	11	1000	16	5	10
Mexico City	Mexico	9	5	3	10	2	2	7
Moscow	Russia	17	19	15	7	24	15	16
Mumbai	India	6	4	5	2	3	5	6
New York City	United States	7	6	4	13	5	3	8
Osaka	Japan	12	16	9	1000	18	12	14
Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	22	14	1000	27	19	24	23
São Paulo	Brazil	8	3	7	6	4	6	9
Seoul	South Korea	3	22	2	8	2	4	3
Shanghai	China	10	7	10	1	6	10	4
Shenzhen	China	14	26	12	11	1000	1000	29
Tehran	Iran	39	35	1000	16	27	21	21
Tianjin	China	44	32	1000	30	20	52	28
Tokyo	Japan	1	1	1	14	1	1	1

See also[link]

• Historical urban community sizes
• List of cities by continent
  • List of cities in Africa
  • Largest cities in the Americas
    • List of cities in North America
      • List of the 100 largest cities in Canada by population
      • List of United States cities by population
    • List of cities in South America
      • List of largest cities in Brazil
  • List of cities in Asia
  • List of cities in Europe
    • List of European capital cities by area
  • List of cities in Oceania
• List of largest cities throughout history
• List of countries whose capital is not their largest city
• List of towns and cities with 100,000 or more inhabitants
• List of countries and territories by continent
• List of cities with the most high-rise buildings
• List of cities with most skyscrapers
• List of largest cities in Central America
• Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
• List of highest cities in the world

Alfonso Ribeiro
Ribeiro in May 2011
Born	Alfonso Lincoln Ribeiro (1971-09-21) September 21, 1971 (age 40) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian, dancer, singer, television personality, television director, game show host
Years active	1980–present
Spouse	Robin Stapler (2002-2006) (divorced) 1 child

Alfonso Lincoln Ribeiro (born September 21, 1971) is an American actor, television director, dancer, game show host, and comedian. Ribeiro is best known for his role as Carlton Banks on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and host of GSN show Catch 21. He has also received attention for his performance in the title role of the Broadway musical The Tap Dance Kid and his appearance as a dancer in a Pepsi commercial also featuring Michael Jackson.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Ribeiro was born in New York City to Joy and Michael Ribeiro.^[2] His parents are from Trinidad and Tobago.^[3]

Ribeiro married Robin Stapler in 2002, after they met on the set of In the House in 1999. Divorce papers were filed August 9, 2006 in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences. The couple share joint custody of their daughter, Sienna Ribeiro.^[4] Ribeiro is currently in a relationship with Angela Unkrich.^[5]

Career[link]

Ribeiro began his career at the age of eight. He first gained recognition in 1983, when he played a leading role in the Broadway musical The Tap Dance Kid. He received positive reviews for his performance, and was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award.^[2] He also appeared in one of Michael Jackson's Pepsi television commercials as a dancer in 1984. The same year, Ribeiro was cast as Rick Schroder's best friend on the TV series Silver Spoons.^[6]

Ribeiro's most notable role was that of spoiled, rich Carlton Banks in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 1990 to 1996. He played the cousin to Will Smith's lead character; Ribeiro also directed some episodes of Fresh Prince. The Carlton character was known for frequently dancing to Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual," a dance move that gained infamy as "The Carlton Dance."^[7]

Ribeiro began hosting the game show Catch 21 on GSN.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Alfonso Ribeiro at the Internet Movie Database
• Alfonso Ribeiro at Yahoo! Movies
• Alfonso Ribeiro at the Internet Broadway Database

Ho Chi Minh
Portrait c. 1946
Chairman of the Workers' Party of Vietnam
In office 19 February 1951 – 2 September 1969
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Post abolished
First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam
In office 1 November 1956 – 10 September 1960
Preceded by	Trường Chinh
Succeeded by	Lê Duẩn
President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
In office 2 September 1945 – 2 September 1969
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Tôn Đức Thắng
Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
In office 2 September 1945 – 20 September 1955
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Phạm Văn Đồng
Personal details
Born	Nguyễn Sinh Cung (1890-05-19)19 May 1890 Nghệ An Province, French Indochina
Died	2 September 1969(1969-09-02) (aged 79) Hanoi, Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Nationality	Vietnamese
Political party	Workers’ Party of Vietnam
Signature

This article contains Vietnamese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of chữ Nôm, chữ Hán and chữ Quốc Ngữ.

Hồ Chí Minh (Vietnamese pronunciation: [hô cǐ miɲ] (Vietnamese pronunciation: [hô̤ tɕǐmɪŋ] ( listen)); 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Tất Thành and Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Stalinist revolutionary leader who was prime minister (1945–1955) and president (1945–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He was a key figure in the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, as well as the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Việt Cộng (NLF or VC) during the Vietnam War.

He led the Việt Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at Điện Biên Phủ. He officially stepped down from power in 1955 due to health problems, but remained a highly visible figurehead and inspiration for Vietnamese fighting for his cause – a united, independent Vietnam – until his death. After the war, Saigon, the capital of Republic of Vietnam, was renamed Hồ Chí Minh City in his honor.

Early life[link]

Nguyễn Sinh Cung was born in 1890 in the village of Hoàng Trù, his mother's hometown. From 1895, he grew up in his father's hometown of Kim Liên, Nam Đàn, Nghệ An Province. He had three siblings: his sister Bạch Liên (or Nguyễn Thị Thanh), a clerk in the French Army; his brother Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm (or Nguyễn Tất Đạt), a geomancer and traditional herbalist; and another brother (Nguyễn Sinh Nhuận) who died in his infancy. As a young child, Nguyễn studied with his father before more formal classes with a scholar named Vuong Thuc Do. Nguyễn quickly mastered Chinese writing, a requisite for any serious study of Confucianism, while honing his colloquial Vietnamese writing.^[1] In addition to his studious endeavors, he was fond of adventure, and loved to fly kites and go fishing.^[1] Following Confucian tradition, at the age of 10, his father gave him a new name: Nguyễn Tất Thành (“Nguyễn the Accomplished”).

Nguyễn’s father, Nguyễn Sinh Sắc, was a Confucian scholar and teacher, and later an imperial magistrate in the small remote district of Binh Khe (Qui Nhơn). He was demoted for abuse of power after an influential local figure died several days after receiving 100 strokes of the cane as punishment for an infraction.^[2] In deference to his father, Nguyễn received a French education, attended lycée in Huế, the alma mater of his later disciples, Phạm Văn Đồng and Võ Nguyên Giáp. He later left his studies and chose to teach at Dục Thanh school in Phan Thiết.

In the USA[link]

In 1911, working as the cook's helper on a ship, Nguyễn traveled to the United States. From 1912-13, he lived in New York (Harlem) and Boston, where he worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel. Among a series of menial jobs, he claimed to have worked for a wealthy family in Brooklyn between 1917–18, and for General Motors as a line manager. It is believed that, while in the United States, he made contact with Korean nationalists, an experience that developed his political outlook.^[3]

In England[link]

At various points between 1913 and 1919, Nguyễn lived in West Ealing, and later in Crouch End, Hornsey. He reportedly worked as a chef at the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing.^[4] It is claimed that Nguyễn trained as a pastry chef under Auguste Escoffier at the Carlton Hotel in the Haymarket, Westminster, but there is no evidence to support this.^[3] However, the wall of New Zealand House, home of the New Zealand High Commission, which now stands on the site of the Carlton Hotel, displays a blue plaque, stating that Nguyễn worked there in 1913 as a waiter.

Political education in France[link]

From 1919–23, while living in France, Nguyễn Sinh Cung began to approach the idea of communism, through his friend and Socialist Party of France comrade Marcel Cachin. Cung claimed to have arrived in Paris from London in 1917, but the French police only had documents of his arrival in June 1919.^[3] Following World War I, under the name Nguyễn Ái Quốc ("Nguyễn the Patriot"), he petitioned for recognition of the civil rights of the Vietnamese people in French Indochina to the Western powers at the Versailles peace talks, but was ignored.^[5] Citing the language and the spirit of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Quốc petitioned U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to help remove the French from Vietnam and replace them with a new, nationalist government. Although he was unable to obtain consideration at Versailles, the failure further radicalized Nguyễn, while also making him a national hero of the anti-colonial movement at home in Vietnam.^[6]

In 1920, during the Congress of Tours, in France, Quốc became a founding member of the Parti Communiste Français (FCP) and spent much of his time in Moscow afterward, becoming the Comintern's Asia hand and the principal theorist on colonial warfare. During the Indochina War, the PCF would be involved with anti-war propaganda, sabotage and support for the revolutionary effort. In May 1922, Nguyễn wrote an article for a French magazine criticizing the use of English words by French sportswriters.^[7] The article implores Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré to outlaw such Franglais as le manager, le round and le knock-out. While living in Paris, he reportedly had a relationship with a dressmaker named Marie Brière.^[7]

In the Soviet Union and China[link]

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In 1923, Nguyễn (Hồ) left Paris for Moscow, where he was employed by the Comintern, studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East,^[8][9] and participated in the Fifth Comintern Congress in June 1924, before arriving in Canton (present-day Guangzhou), China, in November 1924. In June 1925, Hoàng Văn Chí claimed Nguyễn (Hồ) had betrayed Phan Bội Châu, the head of a rival revolutionary faction, to French police in Shanghai for 100,000 piastres.^[10] Nguyễn (Hồ) later claimed he did it because he expected Châu's trial to stir up anti-French resentment, and because he needed the money to establish a communist organization.^[10] In Ho Chi Minh: A Life, William Duiker repudiated this hypothesis. Other sources claim that Nguyễn Thượng Hiền was responsible for Châu's capture. Châu never denounced Nguyễn.

In 1925-26 he organized "Youth Education Classes" and occasionally gave lectures at the Whampoa Military Academy on the revolutionary movement in Indochina. According to Duiker, he lived with and married a Chinese woman, Tăng Tuyết Minh (née Zeng Xueming), on 18 October 1926.^[11] When his comrades objected to the match, he told them, “I will get married despite your disapproval because I need a woman to teach me the language and keep house.”^[11] She was 21 and he was 36.^[11] They married in the same place where Zhou Enlai had married earlier and then lived together at the residence of a Comintern agent, Mikhail Borodin.^[11]

Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communist 1927 coup triggered a new round of exile for Nguyễn. He left Canton again in April 1927 and returned to Moscow, spending some of the summer of 1927 recuperating from tuberculosis in the Crimea, before returning to Paris once more in November. He then returned to Asia by way of Brussels, Berlin, Switzerland, and Italy, from where he sailed to Bangkok, Thailand, where he arrived in July 1928. “Although we have been separated for almost a year, our feelings for each other do not have to be said in order to be felt”, he reassured Minh in an intercepted letter.^[11]

He remained in Thailand, staying in the Thai village of Nachok,^[12] until late 1929 when he moved on to India, and Shanghai. In June 1931, he was arrested in Hong Kong. To reduce French pressure for extradition, it was (falsely) announced in 1932 that Nguyễn Ái Quốc had died.^[13] The British quietly released him in January 1933. He made his way back to Milan, Italy, where he served in a restaurant. The restaurant is now a traditional Lombard-cuisine temple and harbors a portrait of Hồ Chí Minh on the wall of its main dining hall.^[14][15] He moved to the Soviet Union, where he spent several more years recovering from tuberculosis.

In 1938, he returned to China and served as an adviser with Chinese Communist armed forces, which later forced China's government to the island of Taiwan.^[3] Around 1940, Quốc began regularly using the name "Hồ Chí Minh",^[3] a Vietnamese name combining a common Vietnamese surname (Hồ, 胡) with a given name meaning "He Who enlightens" (from Sino-Vietnamese 志 明; Chí meaning 'will' (or spirit), and Minh meaning "light").^[16]

Independence movement[link]

In 1941, Hồ returned to Vietnam to lead the Việt Minh independence movement. The “men in black” were a 10,000 member guerrilla force that operated with the Việt Minh.^[17] He oversaw many successful military actions against the Vichy French and Japanese occupation of Vietnam during World War II, supported closely but clandestinely by the United States Office of Strategic Services, and later against the French bid to reoccupy the country (1946–54). He was jailed in China by Chiang Kai-shek's local authorities before being rescued by Chinese Communists.^[18] Following his release in 1943, he returned to Vietnam. He was treated for malaria and dysentery by American OSS doctors.

Following the August Revolution (1945) organized by the Việt Minh, Hồ became Chairman of the Provisional Government (Premier of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and issued a Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.^[19] Although he convinced Emperor Bảo Đại to abdicate, his government was not recognized by any country. He repeatedly petitioned American President Harry S. Truman for support for Vietnamese independence,^[20] citing the Atlantic Charter, but Truman never responded.^[21]

According to some unverified sources,^[22] 1945, in a power struggle, the Việt Minh killed members of rival groups, such as the leader of the Constitutional Party, the head of the Party for Independence, and Ngô Đình Diệm's brother, Ngô Ðình Khôi.^[23] Purges and killings of Trotskyists were also documented in The Black Book of Communism.

In 1946, when Hồ traveled outside of the country, his subordinates imprisoned 2,500 non-communist nationalists and forced 6,000 others to flee.^[24] Hundreds of political opponents were jailed or exiled in July 1946, notably members of the National Party of Vietnam and the Dai Viet National Party, after a failed attempt to raise a coup against the Vietminh government.^[25][26] All rival political parties therefore banned and local governments purged^[27] to minimize opposition later on.

However, it was noted that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam's first Congress had over two-third of its members come from non-Vietminh political factions, some without election. NPV party leader Nguyễn Hải Thần was named Vice President.^[28] They also held four out of ten ministerial positions.^[29]

Birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam[link]

On 2 September 1945, following Emperor Bảo Đại's abdication, Hồ Chí Minh read the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam,^[30] under the name of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In Saigon, with violence between rival Vietnamese factions and French forces increasing, the British commander, General Sir Douglas Gracey, declared martial law. On 24 September, the Việt Minh leaders responded with a call for a general strike.^[31]

In September 1945, a force of 200,000 Republic of China Army troops arrived in Hanoi. Hồ made a compromise with their general, Lu Han, to dissolve the Communist Party and to hold an election which would yield a coalition government. When Chiang later traded Chinese influence in Vietnam for French concessions in Shanghai, Hồ Chí Minh had no choice but to sign an agreement with France on 6 March 1946, in which Vietnam would be recognized as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union. The agreement soon broke down. The purpose of the agreement, for both the French and Vietminh was to drive out Chiang's army from North Vietnam. Fighting broke out in the North soon after the Chinese left.

“The last time the Chinese came, they stayed a thousand years. The French are foreigners. They are weak. Colonialism is dying. The white man is finished in Asia. But if the Chinese stay now, they will never go. As for me, I prefer to sniff French shit for five years than to eat Chinese shit for the rest of my life.” — Hồ Chí Minh, 1946^[32]

The Viet Minh then collaborated with French colonial forces to massacre supporters of the Vietnamese nationalist movements in 1945-6.^[33] The Communists eventually suppressed all non-Communist parties but failed to secure a peace deal with France. In the final days of 1946, after a year of diplomatic failure and many concessions in agreements such as the Dalat and Fontainebleau conferences, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam government found that war was inevitable. The bombardment of Haiphong by French forces at Hanoi only strengthened the belief that France had no intention of allowing an autonomous, independent state in Vietnam. On 19 December 1946, Hồ, representing his government, declared war against the French Union, marked the beginning of the Indochina War.^[34] The Vietnam National Army, by then mostly armed with machetes and muskets immediately attacked, waging assault against French positions, smoking them out with straw bundled with chili pepper, destroying armored vehicles by Lunge Mines and Molotov cocktails, holding off attackers by using roadblocks, mines and gravel. After two month of fighting, the exhausted Việt Minh forces withdrew after systematically destroying any valuable infrastructure. Hồ was reported to be captured by a group of French soldiers led by Jean-Etienne Valluy at Việt Bắc in Operation Lea which turned out to be a Việt Minh advisor, who was later killed trying to escape. According to journalist Bernard Fall, after fighting the French for several years, Hồ decided to negotiate a truce. The French negotiators arrived at the meeting site: a mud hut with a thatched roof. Inside they found a long table with chairs and were surprised to discover in one corner of the room a silver ice bucket containing ice and a bottle of good Champagne which should have indicated that Hồ expected the negotiations to succeed. One demand by the French was the return to French custody of a number of Japanese military officers (who had been helping the Vietnamese armed forces by training them in the use of weapons of Japanese origin), in order for them to stand trial for war crimes committed during World War II. Hồ replied that the Japanese officers were allies and friends whom he could not betray. Then he walked out, to seven more years of war.^[35]

In February 1950, after the successful removal of French border's blockade,^[36] Hồ met with Stalin and Mao Zedong in Moscow after the Soviet Union recognized his government. They all agreed that China would be responsible for backing the Việt Minh.^[37] Mao's emissary to Moscow stated in August that China planned to train 60-70,000 Việt Minh in the near future.^[38] The road to the outside world was open for Việt Minh forces to receive additional supplies which allow them to escalate the fight against the French regime throughout Indochina. In 1954, after the crushing defeat of French Union forces at Điện Biên Phủ, France was forced to give up its fight against the Viet Minh.

Becoming president[link]

Hồ Chí Minh (right) with Võ Nguyên Giáp (left) in Hanoi, 1945

Hồ Chí Minh with East German sailors in Stralsund harbour, 1957

House of “Uncle Hồ” in Hanoi