World's largest cities

Determining the world's largest cities depends on which definitions of city are used. The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities may be classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined by the extent of their urban area, the metropolitan region, and the city proper.

Common methods for defining the boundaries of a city

Urban areas

A city can be defined as a conditionally contiguous urban area, without regard to territorial or other boundaries inside an urban area. UNICEF defines urban area as follows:

Metropolitan area

A city can be defined by the habits of its demographic population, as by metropolitan area, labour market area, or similar in a metropolitan area. UNICEF defines metropolitan area as follows:

City proper (administrative)

A city can be defined by its administrative boundaries (city proper). World Urbanization Prospects, a UN publication, defines population of a city proper as "the population living within the administrative boundaries of a city or controlled directly from the city by a single authority." UNICEF defines city proper as "the population living within the administrative boundaries of a city, e.g., Washington, D.C.". A city proper is a locality defined according to legal or political boundaries and an administratively recognised urban status that is usually characterised by some form of local government. Cities proper and their boundaries and population data may not include suburbs.

List of largest cities and second-largest cities by country

This is a list of the largest and second-largest cities by population in each country. If a territory or region of a certain country is listed, the name of the country is specified in parentheses immediately after the name of the territory.

Capital cities are in bold.

See also

Notes

References

Second

The second (symbol: s) (abbreviated s or sec) is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). It is qualitatively defined as the second division of the hour by sixty, the first division by sixty being the minute. It is quantitatively defined in terms of a certain number of periods – about 9 billion – of a certain frequency of radiation from the caesium atom: a so-called atomic clock. Seconds may be measured using a mechanical, electric or atomic clock.

City

A city is a large and permanent human settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town in general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.

Cities generally have complex systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing, and transportation. The concentration of development greatly facilitates interaction between people and businesses, benefiting both parties in the process, but it also presents challenges to managing urban growth.

A big city or metropolis usually has associated suburbs and exurbs. Such cities are usually associated with metropolitan areas and urban areas, creating numerous business commuters traveling to urban centers for employment. Once a city expands far enough to reach another city, this region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis. In terms of population, the largest city proper is Shanghai, while the fastest-growing is Dubai.

Origins

There is not enough evidence to assert what conditions gave rise to the first cities. Some theorists have speculated on what they consider suitable pre-conditions and basic mechanisms that might have been important driving forces.

Chania

Chania (Greek: Χανιά, [xaˈɲa], Venetian: Canea, Ottoman Turkish: خانيه Hanya) is the second largest city of Crete and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north coast of the island, about 70 km (43 mi) west of Rethymno and 145 km (90 mi) west of Heraklion.

The official population of the municipal unit (the former municipality) is 53,910, while the municipality has 108,642 (2011) inhabitants. This consists of the city of Chania and several other towns and villages, including Kounoupidiana (pop. 8,620), Mournies (pop. 7,614), Souda (pop. 6,418), Nerokouros (pop. 5,531), Daratsos (pop. 4,732), Perivolia (pop. 3,986), Galatas (pop. 3,166) and Aroni (pop. 3,003).

History

Early history

Chania is the site of the Minoan settlement the Greeks called Kydonia, Greek for quince. It appears on Linear B as ku-do-ni-ja. Some notable archaeological evidence for the existence of this Minoan city below some parts of today's Chania was found by excavations in the district of Kasteli in the Old Town. This area appears to have been inhabited since the Neolithic era. The city reemerged after the end of the Minoan period as an important city-state in Classical Greece, one whose domain extended from Chania Bay to the feet of the White Mountains. The first major wave of settlers from mainland Greece was by the Dorian Greeks who came around 1100 BC. Kydonia was constantly at war with other Cretan city-states such as Aptera, Phalasarna and Polyrrinia and was important enough for the Kydonians to be mentioned in Homer's Odyssey (xix.200). In 69 BC, the Roman consul Caecilius Metellus defeated the Cretans and conquered Kydonia to which he granted the privileges of an independent city-state. Kydonia reserved the right to mint its own coins until the third century AD.