PBB Calls Jakarta The Most Intensive City Of The World, Pramono: Salah, Actually Number 30

Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung (Diah Ayu/VOI)

JAKARTA - DKI Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung responded to a report by the World Urbaization Prospect 2025 from the United Nations (UN) which places Jakarta as the most dense city in the world by 2025 with 42 million people.

According to Pramono, this contradicts the data held by the DKI Provincial Government. Pramono said, actually Jakarta is not more crowded than dozens of cities in other countries.

"In my opinion, if Jakarta is actually the most congested city, it is wrong. Because Jakarta is in a density city number 30, actually," said Pramono in Central Jakarta, Tuesday, December 2.

Pramono arrested that the placement of Jakarta as the most populous city in the world by the United Nations was suspected by the position of the capital city which became the center of agglomeration in the Jabodetabek area. Even so, the number of people in Jakarta administratively is only around 11 million people.

"Indeed, because the agglomeration is considered by Jakarta, the population is 42 million to beat Bangladesh, New Delhi, Tokyo, and so on. But for me it is a reference for us to be more active in building Jakarta," Pramono explained.

Similarly, the Special Staff of the Governor of DKI Jakarta for Social Communication Chico Hakim revealed that the definition of the United Nations was caused by millions of residents of buffer areas in Jabodetabek who were active in Jakarta.

"Every day, millions of people are active in Jakarta from Bogor City, Bogor Regency, Depok, Tangerang City, Tangerang Regency, South Tangerang, Bekasi City, and Bekasi Regency," Chico told reporters, Friday, November 28.

Chico explained that residents from this buffer zone come to Jakarta every day to work, go to school, study, do business, seek treatment, and take care of public services.

"This mobility makes Jakarta feel much more crowded than the official population," said Chico.

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.

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.