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Page added on February 27, 2014
The World’s Most Densely Populated Cities
50. Tokyo/Yokohama, Japan has a population density of 4,750 residents per square kilometer. Here, we count down the 50 most densely populated cities in the world. (Thinkstock/flashfilm)
By 2210, the global population is expected to grow from just more than 7 billion to 11.3 billion — with 87 percent of the population living in urban areas, according to a new working paper by researchers from NYU’s Marron Institute.
Most of these individuals will be in what’s now the developing world — creating a host of environmental and health problems.
If projections are correct, these new urban dwellers will require the world’s existing cities to expand six-fold to accommodate triple the residents, Richard Florida wrote in The Atlantic. Plus, the world will need 500 new “megacities” of 10 million or more, he wrote.
(Above, the world’s most densely populated large cities, as ranked by CityMayors.com.)
One major issue with a growing population: shortages, of both food and water. Already, the United Nations is watching for food shortages based on severe weather and climate change in food-exporting countries such as the U.S. For example, the United States’ major drought in 2012 drastically, perhaps dangerously, reduced the world’s grain reserves, according to the UN.
Other urban health consequences include air and water pollution, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
Crowded cities make wastewater management more difficult. Waste pollutes clean water, making it undrinkable. Even today in some African cities, there are inadequate water supplies because most of the water is lost in pipe leakages, according to the UN.
Today, outdoor air pollution contributes to about two million deaths a year and a host of chronic health problems. Indoor air pollution, primarily from cook stoves in developing nations, kills another four million people every year, according to the World Health Organization. As cities continue to crowd, this issue will only grow, according to UN data.
It’s also likely that crime and violence will increase along with urban density, the UN reports. Independent studies have found that the warming planet is likely to increase violence worldwide because of the economic pressure caused by heat and drought and simply, hotter tempers.
The best solution, Florida wrote for The Atlantic: Effective public and private sector planning to manage growth and to prepare for the cities of the future.
20 Comments on "The World’s Most Densely Populated Cities"
Makati1 on Thu, 27th Feb 2014 2:24 pm
Fun places to live… and Manila is #15. My one acre condo tower houses over 1,000 of them/us. Not where I will be when the SHTF. ^_^
J-Gav on Thu, 27th Feb 2014 3:11 pm
Whenever I read articles beginning with something like: “By 2210 the global population is expected to grow from just over 7 billion to 11.3 billion …” I just shake my head in disbelief.
Anyway, I suppose this can be used as a guide for places to be avoided like the plague.
J-Gav on Thu, 27th Feb 2014 3:19 pm
NB – They’re using metro area size and population here. So, for ex. Paris, listed here as not far off 10 million, has a population of ‘only’ around 2 million in the city proper.
Davy, Hermann, MO on Thu, 27th Feb 2014 3:33 pm
“WTF” FILTER SAYS – By 2210, the global population is expected to grow from just more than 7 billion to 11.3 billion —with 87 percent of the population living in urban areas, according to a new working paper by researchers from NYU’s Marron Institute.
“WTF FILTER SAYS – If projections are correct, these new urban dwellers will require the world’s existing cities to expand six-fold to accommodate triple the residents, Richard Florida wrote in The Atlantic. Plus, the world will need 500 new “megacities” of 10 million or more, he wrote.
Please if I read another projection into the future like this one I will piss my pants in frustration.
Bard on Thu, 27th Feb 2014 5:46 pm
Multiply we did, without care or mind,
Stressed and congealed we forgot
ourselves,
Busy with yesterday and today and tomorrow,
Never seeing the path to our sorrow.
Water was wasted,
Food was abused,
Time was taken and never reused.
The air became turgid with the scent of death,
As the two fingered salute met with every breath.
– Bard
action on Thu, 27th Feb 2014 5:48 pm
That’ll happen when the residents start pooping out something useful, like oil.
Kenz300 on Thu, 27th Feb 2014 10:22 pm
Quote —- “One major issue with a growing population: shortages, of both food and water. Already, the United Nations is watching for food shortages based on severe weather and climate change in food-exporting countries such as the U.S. For example, the United States’ major drought in 2012 drastically, perhaps dangerously, reduced the world’s grain reserves, according to the UN.
Other urban health consequences include air and water pollution, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
Crowded cities make wastewater management more difficult. Waste pollutes clean water, making it undrinkable. Even today in some African cities, there are inadequate water supplies because most of the water is lost in pipe leakages, according to the UN.”
——————————-
Too many people and too few resources….. yet the world adds 80 million more mouths to feed every year.
The worlds poorest people are having the most children. They have not figured out the connection between their poverty and family size.
Access to family planning services needs to be available to all that want it.
Endless population growth is not sustainable.
action on Thu, 27th Feb 2014 10:51 pm
Kenz for the love of god say something other than the same things you cut and paste every time, though granted I agree with you and its apt.
noobtube on Fri, 28th Feb 2014 4:06 am
I wonder whether the Americans will ever figure out that waging war against Africa/Middle East, buying the latest i-crap from China, and going into debt for the latest new rolling trash can (your own personal car) or “education” is wasting more of the Earth’s resources than some woman having kids in a poor country.
Then, again, the racists wouldn’t be able to indulge in their delusional, self-important, cowardly finger-pointing of the defenseless.
If they couldn’t blame Africa, would the racists kill themselves? It looks like I’m going to find out the way things are going.
Boat on Fri, 28th Feb 2014 5:18 am
noobtube The world is run on money not children. I would suggest getting some money before you have children.
Boat on Fri, 28th Feb 2014 5:24 am
Living in cramped quarters and in the midst of pollution will drop the birth rate. It is happening already in developed countries. Who wants to have sex in a world of hot concrete.
noobtube on Fri, 28th Feb 2014 5:49 am
First, the United States hasn’t used money since 1971. It is a DEBTOR country.
Second, it is not the birth rate that is the issue, it is the rate of consumption.
Third, the biggest consumers (ie pollution and trash creators) are the holier-than-thou scumbags who are always invading, meddling, and terrorizing Africa and the rest of the world.
Even if there were only 1 billion people left on the Earth, if they were all Americans and Europeans, the world would be right back in the same place it is today, in less than 30 years. Then, who would you want murdered?
How about the racists in Europe and the United States disappear to solve the population “problem” they keep screaming about?
GregT on Fri, 28th Feb 2014 6:21 am
Boat,
I would suggest learning a basic understanding of what money is, before continuing to spout your ignorance.
Davy, Hermann, MO on Fri, 28th Feb 2014 10:52 am
@noobtube, you ever think it might be a combination of the two effects that is destroying the world. Or is it bash the rich west and American in particular?
The absolute numbers of people are a problem for reasons of food, water, education, and energy consumption. In the case of a poor country with a significant overshoot to carrying capacity there will be the water issues of pollution and depleted fresh sources. Food problems in poor countries in overshoot means unstable population, degraded farm land from over use and development pressures. The energy issues means if fossil fuels are not affordable often the forest are cut down for cooking fuel. In the cities the fossil fuel use will be inefficient and the pollution is serious from densities. Poor countries have a difficult time changing these dynamics because of lack of education leads to continued poor decisions. In the rich countries with stable lower populations it is a matter of overuse from relative prosperity. Rich countries magnify their economic overshoot of carrying capacity through fossil energy, water, and food intensity per capita. A mobile technical society uses great energy from industry and consumerism. Water use is elevated through excessive residential use and industrial activity. Many times agriculture is a serious water usage sink. Wealthy stable populations eat more energy intensive foods like meat or highly processed foods. Both populations rich and poor generate significant pollution.
Your understanding of money is simplistic. The whole global finance system is complex and integrated. All global fiat currencies are similar in the sense they are not backed by a store of value. The US happens to have a high demand world reserve currency. This has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are well known being able to borrow to finance budget deficits. Consumers and business have the advantage of lower relative prices in commodities especially oil. The disadvantages are all the distortions a reserve currency does to the economy. I would argue the Swiss have a better currency situation then the US. The Swiss are able to maintain more wealth stability then the US. The US has the problem with inflation pressures if dollars rush back to the US in a time of panic. The public and government learn bad habits like over spending when it can be financed.
Makati1 on Fri, 28th Feb 2014 1:22 pm
Davy, the West consumes/wastes most of the food produced in the world today. And most of the energy. If the Chinese consumed on the level of Americans, they would take ALL of the food and resources of the entire world.
You are an American and, as such, think it is your right to consume what you want and the other inhabitants of the world can just do without. At least that is what you are saying when you pay your taxes that supports the resource plundering military industrial complex. Take away the petro dollar and you too would be 3rd world in less than a year.
Yes, I am an American also and guilty of the same things except I no longer pay taxes. I am also ashamed of what we have allowed our country to become. The world would be better off if the US did collapse and have to withdraw to it’s own shores as it is supposed to do according to the Constitution. I hope that day comes soon. I think it will.
Davy, Hermann, MO on Fri, 28th Feb 2014 1:37 pm
Makati, you are part of the “blame game complain lobby”. The sooner you quit looking for someone to blame and start asking yourself how you and your local surrounding contribute then you can go to the next level of relative sacrifice per your abilities and your local abilities. The whole Asian game of saying “you westerners have contributed to overshoot in the past so we can overshoot growth now is a dead end for survival. Your much admired and promoted “China” is by far the biggest contributor of resource depletion and pollution. You can argue all day long the subtleties of this. The facts remain that the global world is in a state of population overshoot in a predicament to limits of growth. This allows no wiggle room. For Asia to say we deserve more and you need to have less in a sinking ship is useless. “Everyone” needs to do less with less. This doing less with less, though necessary, will destroy growth that will initiate a collapse to status quo BAU. If that is what you want great, but realize the consequences. I am hoping for a gentler decent if at all possible. As for myself I need a couple of more years for long term planning. I am set short term. Your blame game is like people throwing rocks in a neighborhood of glass houses. Do you think I wanted to be born into a world of rape and pillage on a global scale. Do you think I had a choice? This is a self-organizing phenomenon and consequently the survival options are individual, community and local. It will help if the local can muster enough votes to temper the worst effects of the top down exploitation and wealth transfer of the “Global” bottom 90%. Please leave me out of your blame game.
Boat on Fri, 28th Feb 2014 5:47 pm
population decline is a very familiar concept in the rest of the developed world, where fertility has long since fallen far below the 2.1 live births per woman required to maintain population equilibrium. In Germany, the birthrate has sunk to just 1.36, worse even than its low-fertility neighbors Spain (1.48) and Italy (1.4). The way things are going, Western Europe as a whole will most likely shrink from 460 million to just 350 million by the end of the century. That’s not so bad compared with Russia and China, each of whose populations could fall by half
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/01/world_population_may_actually_start_declining_not_exploding.html
I was not trying to get into some blame game. As education around the world improves and living conditions get tougher the populations will drop. I think they call that common sense.
Boat on Fri, 28th Feb 2014 5:48 pm
If it were not for immigration the US would be declining in population also.
rollin on Fri, 28th Feb 2014 6:43 pm
That photograph looks like some kind of disease has attacked the earth.
Makati1 on Sat, 1st Mar 2014 2:42 am
Davy, only putting the blame where it should be. Patriot flag waving in defense of the US is also not getting you anywhere. If the 300M in the US disappeared, the world would have 30% more to share. But they are too greedy.
And, I AM doing what I can to change things … here. I tried there, but was ignored by most of my family and friends as wrong. Too blinded by the MSN. I’m in the right place, doing what is necessary.