Jakarta World's Most Populous City 42 Million UN Version, DKI Provincial Government: Daily Activities, Not Official Residents

Illustration of a graded building in DKI Jakarta covered in pollution. (Between)

JAKARTA - Special Staff to the Governor of DKI Jakarta for Social Communication Chico Hakim responded to the latest report by the United Nations (UN) which places Jakarta as the most congested city in the world in 2025 with 42 million people.

Chico explained that the 42 million residents in Jakarta referred to by the United Nations in their report described the number of people active in Jakarta and its surroundings (day mobility), not residents with Jakarta ID cards.

"The number reaches 42 million people, which is calculated based on daily activities, not official residents," Chico told reporters, Thursday, November 27.

He revealed that the UN data source in the World Urbaization Prospect 2025 document which positioned Jakarta as the first most dense city in the world came from international institutions, metropolitan estimation, and mobility data.

"The data is De facto, which is based on anyone who is or is active in the Jakarta area," said Chico.

The total number of 42 million people in Jakarta, continued Chico, is considered functionally or to describe urbanization in megapolitan cities. This figure, according to Chico, measures people who work daily in Jakarta, including those living on the outskirts or buffer cities.

Meanwhile, administratively, Jakarta recorded an official population of 11,010,514 people based on Net Population Data for Semester 1 of 2025, DKI Jakarta Province sourced from the Directorate General of Dukcapil, Ministry of Home Affairs.

"This figure is an official resident based on the NIK which is registered at the Jakarta address and is official state data. The data source comes from the Ministry of Home Affairs (Ditjen Dukcapil) in the form of Clean Population Data which is released per semester," Chcio explained.

It is known that the United Nations released a report recording Jakarta as the world's most populous city with a population of nearly 42 million people. In this global ranking, the population density in Jakarta beat Dhaka (Bangladesh) in second place with around 40 million people, and Tokyo (Japan) which is said to have around 33 million people.

According to a UN report, currently about 45 percent of the world's population lives in urban areas. This urbanization rate has soared rapidly since 1950 where only 20 percent of the world's population live in cities.