Population Explosion, Jakarta Becomes The World's Largest Urban Area 2025

JAKARTA - Jakarta has now been named the largest urban area in the world with a population approaching 42 million. This finding comes from the latest United Nations (UN) research showing how population development in Asia has continued to increase in recent decades.

In 2000, Tokyo still held the position of the largest city in the world. However, the slowing population growth over the past 25 years has seen the Japanese capital now overtaken by Jakarta and Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. According to the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the population of Dhaka, which has nearly reached 37 million people, has also surpassed Tokyo, which has a population of around 33 million.

The following is a list of the largest cities in the world in 2025, as reported by the abc.net.au page.

1. Jakarta, Indonesia 42 million

2. Dhaka, Bangladesh 37 million

3. Tokyo, Japan 33 million

4. New Delhi, India 30 million

5. Shanghai, China 30 million

6. Guangzhou, China 28 million

7. Cairo, Egypt 26 million

8. Manila, Philippines 25 million

9. Kolkata, India 23 million

10. Seoul, South Korea -22 million

The United Nations projects that Dhaka will become the world's largest city by 2050, while the Tokyo population is expected to continue to decline as Japan's population declines, dominated by the elderly.

Of the ten most populous cities in the world, nine are in Asia. Cairo, Egypt is the only non-Asian city on the list.

Director of the Rujak Center for Urban Studies, Elisa Sutanudjaja, said that the report had actually confirmed what the city's observers had known for a long time. The population of Greater Jakarta has exceeded Tokyo since several years ago. According to him, the large population of Jakarta poses various big challenges, especially due to the weak coordination between regional governments. Jakarta residents face extreme congestion, pollution, and flooding every day.

In response to this issue, the Indonesian government in 2019 announced plans to move the capital city from Java Island to Kalimantan. The new capital city development project called Nusantara is still ongoing, but is experiencing delays and difficulties in attracting investment.

In its report, the United Nations noted that by 2025 about 45 percent of the world's total population reached 8.2 billion people living in urban areas. This figure increased sharply compared to 1950, when only one in five people lived in the city.

The number of megacity, a city with a population of more than 10 million people, jumped from eight in 1975 to 33 this year, with 19 of them in Asia. The United Nations estimates Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia will surpass the 10 million population by 2050, along with several other cities such as Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Hajipur in India.

"Urbanization is a determining force in our time. If managed properly, he said, urbanization could open up great opportunities for handling climate change, economic growth, and social equity," said Head of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Li Junhua.

He emphasized the need for integrated national policies, including housing, land use, mobility, and public services so that development between urban and rural areas is more balanced.