Megacity
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/* Largest cities */
{{Copyedit|date=February 2008}}
{{This|megacities in general|Mega City}}
A '''megacity''' is generally defined as a [[metropolitan area]] with a total [[population]] in excess of 10 million people.<ref> "How Big Can Cities Get?" ''New Scientist Magazine'', [[17 June]] [[2006]], page 41.</ref> Some definitions also set a minimum level for [[population density]] (at least 2,000 persons/square km). Megacities can be distinguished from [[global cities]] by their rapid growth, new forms of spatial density of population, formal and informal economics, as well as poverty, crime, and high levels of social fragmentation. A megacity can be a single [[metropolitan area]] or two or more metropolitan areas that converge upon one another. The terms [[conurbation]] and [[metroplex]] are also applied to the latter. The terms ''megapolis'' and ''[[Megalopolis (term)|megalopolis]]'' are sometimes used synonymously with ''megacity''. The term ''metacity'' is also sometimes used to describe cities with more than 20 million people.
[[Image:2006megacities.PNG|thumb|right|Large Cities in 2006]]
In 1800 only 3% of the [[world population|world's population]] lived in cities. By the 20th century's close, 47% did so. In 1950, there were 83 cities with populations exceeding one million; but by 2007, this had risen to 468 [[agglomerations]] of more than one million.<ref>[http://www.citypopulation.de/World.html Principal Agglomerations of the World]</ref> If the trend continues, the world's [[Metropolis|urban population]] will double every 38 years, say researchers. The UN forecasts that today's urban population of 3.2 billion will rise to nearly 5 billion by 2030, when three out of five people will live in cities.<ref>[http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/11/megacities-population-urbanization-biz-cx_21cities_ml_0611megacities.html Megacities Of The Future]</ref>
The increase will be most dramatic in the poorest and least-urbanised continents, [[Asia]] and [[Africa]]. Surveys and projections indicate that all urban growth over the next 25 years will be in [[developing countries]].<ref>[http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=5307 Nigeria: Lagos, the mega-city of slums]</ref> One billion people, one-sixth of the world's population, now live in [[shanty towns]],<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4561183.stm Half of humanity set to go urban]</ref> which are seen as "breeding grounds" for social problems such as [[crime]], [[drug addiction]], [[alcoholism]], [[poverty]] and [[unemployment]]. In many poor countries [[overpopulation|overpopulated]] slums exhibit high rates of [[tropical diseases|disease]] due to unsanitary conditions, malnutrition, and lack of basic health care.<ref>[http://www.blackcommentator.com/88/88_reprint_planet_slums.html Planet of Slums - The Third World’s Megacities]</ref> By 2030, over 2 billion people in the world will be living in [[slums]].<ref>[http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2007/english/chapter_2/slums.html State of World Population 2007]</ref> Already over 90% of the urban population of [[Ethiopia]], [[Malawi]] and [[Uganda]], three of the world's most rural countries, live in slums.
Global connectedness and local disconnectedness characterize megacities. The level of slums contrasts the global capital building capabilities. This can be viewed as one of the tensions brought about by the globalization of modern cities. In 2000, there were 18 megacities – conurbations such as [[Tokyo]], [[New York City]], [[Mexico City]], [[Buenos Aires]], [[Bombay]], [[São Paulo]], [[Karachi]] that have populations in excess of 10 million inhabitants. [[Greater Tokyo]] already has 35 million, which is greater than the entire population of [[Canada]].<ref>[http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9070726 The world goes to town]</ref>
By 2025, according to the ''Far Eastern Economic Review'', Asia alone will have at least 10 hypercities (cities with a population greater than 20 million), including [[Jakarta|Jakarta, Indonesia]] (24.9 million people), [[Dhaka|Dhaka, Bangladesh]] (25 million), [[Karachi|Karachi, Pakistan]] (26.5 million), [[Shanghai]] (27 million) and [[Bombay]] (with a staggering 33 million).<ref>[http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HE20Aa01.html Planet of Slums by Mike Davis]</ref> [[Lagos|Lagos, Nigeria]] has grown from 300,000 in 1950 to an estimated 15 million today, and the Nigerian government estimates that the city will have expanded to 25 million residents by 2015.<ref>[http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/places/cities/city_lagos.html Lagos, Nigeria facts - National Geographic]</ref> Chinese experts forecast that Chinese cities will contain 800 million people by 2020.<ref>[http://english.people.com.cn/200409/16/eng20040916_157275.html China's urban population to reach 800 to 900 million by 2020: expert]</ref>
==Largest cities==
In [[1950]], [[New York City|New York]] was the only urban area with a population of over 20 million.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201g.htm|title=Top 10 Cities of the Year 1950| work=Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census|author=Tertius Chandler, 1987, St. David's University Press| accessdate=2007-03-24}}</ref> Geographers have identified 25 such areas as of [[October 2005]],<ref>[http://www.citypopulation.de/World.html Population statistics]</ref> as compared with 19 megacities in [[2004]] and only nine in [[1985]]. This increase has happened as the world's population moves towards the high (75–85%) urbanization levels of [[North America]] and [[Western Europe]]. The 1990 census marked the first time the majority of US citizens lived in cities with over 1 million inhabitants.
In the 2000s, the largest megacity is the [[Greater Tokyo Area]]. The population of this [[urban agglomeration]] includes areas such as [[Yokohama]] and [[Kawasaki, Kanagawa|Kawasaki]], and is estimated to be between 35 and 36 million. This variation in estimates can be accounted for by different definitions of what the area encompasses. While the prefectures of [[Tokyo]], [[Chiba Prefecture|Chiba]], [[Kanagawa Prefecture|Kanagawa]], and [[Saitama Prefecture|Saitama]] are commonly included in statistical information, the Japan Statistics Bureau only includes the area within 50 kilometers of the [[Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building|Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices]] in [[Shinjuku, Tokyo|Shinjuku]], thus arriving at a smaller population estimate.<ref>[http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/handbook/c02cont.htm Greater Tokyo population statistics]</ref><ref>[http://www.citypopulation.de/World.html Tokyo metropolitan area population statistics]</ref> A characteristic issue of megacities is the difficulty in defining their outer limits and accurately estimating the population.
The ten largest megacities, according to this criterion are:
# [[Tokyo, Japan]], (33,600,000)
# [[Seoul National Capital Area|Seoul]], [[South Korea]] (23,400,000)
# [[Greater Mexico City|Mexico City]] (22,400,000)
# [[New York metropolitan area|New York City]], [[United States|USA]] (21,961,994)
# [[Mumbai metropolitan area|Mumbai]] (Bombay), [[India]] (21,600,000)
# [[Delhi]], [[India]] (21,500,000)
# [[Greater São Paulo|São Paulo]], [[Brazil]] (20,600,000)
# [[Greater Los Angeles Area|Los Angeles]], [[United States|USA]] (18,000,000)
# [[Shanghai]], [[China]] (17,500,000)
# [[Osaka]], [[Japan]] (16,700,000)
<small>Source: [http://www.citypopulation.de/World.html Th. Brinkhoff: The Principal Agglomerations of the World, 2006-11-22]</small>
Other megacities include.
*[[Cairo]] (16.1)
*[[Buenos Aires]] (16.0)
*[[Kolkata]] (15.7)
*[[Metro Manila]] (15.6)
*[[Jakarta]] (15.1)
*[[Karachi]] (15.1)
*[[Dhaka]] (12.6)
*[[Beijing]] (12.8)
*[[Lahore]] (12.7)
*[[London]] (12.5)
*[[Paris]] (12.0)
*[[Istanbul]] (11.8)
*[[Rio de Janeiro]] (11.5)
*[[Tehran]] (10.2)
*[[Lagos]] (10.1)
*[[Moscow]] (10.1)
*[[Bangkok]] (10.1)
Another list defines megacities as urban agglomerations instead of metropolitan areas [http://www.demographia.com/db-megacity.pdf]. As of 2007, there are 22 megacities by this definition.
[[United Nations]] projections indicate a slow down of the emergence of new megacities after [[2005]]. However, the expansion and merging of highly-urbanized zones (''[[Megalopolis (city type)|megalopolises]]'') may remain an important trend, as typified by the following:
*[[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]]–[[New York City]]–[[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]]–[[Baltimore, Maryland|Baltimore]]–[[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] ([[BosWash]])
*[[Los Angeles]]–[[San Diego]]-[[Tijuana]] ([[Southern California]] and [[San Diego-Tijuana metropolitan area]])
*[[Chicago]]-[[Milwaukee]]
*[[Mexico City]]-[[Toluca]]-[[Puebla]]-[[Pachuca]] ([[Valley of Mexico]])
*[[Seattle]]-[[Portland, Oregon|Portland]]-[[Vancouver, Canada|Vancouver]] ([[Pacific_Northwest#Population|Cascadia]])
*[[Tokyo]]–[[Nagoya]]–[[Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto]] ([[Taiheiyō Belt]]) (82,900,000)
*[[San Jose, California|San Jose]]–[[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]]–[[Oakland, California|Oakland]] ([[San Francisco Bay Area]])
*[[Rio de Janeiro|Rio]]–[[São Paulo]]–[[Belo Horizonte]]-[[Campinas]]<ref>Hamilton Tolosa, “The Rio/São Paulo/Belo Horizonte Extended Metropolitan Region; A Quest for Global Integration”, ''The Annals of Regional Science'' 37:2 (September 2003), pp. 480, 485.</ref>
*[[Cologne]]-[[Düsseldorf]]-[[Dortmund]] ([[Rhine-Ruhr|Rhine-Ruhr Area]])
*[[Quebec City-Windsor Corridor]]
*[[Calgary-Edmonton Corridor]] (2,600,000)
Emerging megacities in [[China]] (in decreasing order of population):
*[[Yangtze River Delta]] Metropolitan Area ([[Shanghai]]-[[Hangzhou]]-[[Nanjing]]-[[Ningbo]]-[[Suzhou]]) (87,430,000)
*[[Pearl River Delta]] ([[Hong Kong]]-[[Shenzhen]]-[[Zhuhai]]-[[Macau]]) (50,000,000)<ref>[http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EH07Ad01.html The Pearl River gets a necklace]</ref>
*[[Chongqing]] (31,442,300)
*[[Beijing]]-[[Tianjin]] corridor (27,350,000)
Emerging megacities in [[India]] (in decreasing order of population):
*[[Lucknow]]-[[Kanpur]] corridor (13,678,000)
*[[Bangalore]]-[[Mysore]] corridor (12,000,000)
*[[Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh|Hyderabad]]-[[Secunderabad]] (10,000,000)
*[[Ahmedabad]]-[[Gandhinagar]] corridor (5,900,000)
*[[Pune]]-[[Nashik]] corridor (5,000,000)
Emerging megacities in [[Pakistan]] (in decreasing order of population):
*[[Lahore]] (10,000,000)
*[[Faisalabad]] (5,646,000)
*[[Multan]] (4,789,000)
*[[Sialkot]] (3,577,000)
*[[Islamabad]]-[[Rawalpindi]] (3,300,000)
==US==
The Greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Region consists of 5 counties making up a population of over 15 million. The city of Los Angeles makes up less than one third of this total population. The cityspace of Orange County consists of municipalities containing no more than 300,000 each, but put together comprise a “county-city” of 2.6 million. This presents difficulties for census gathering. Sometimes it is included in Los Angeles population information but not recognized as a city-region of its own, and other times it is left out of the total figure.
== Challenges==
The world’s population of “slum” dwellers increases by 25 million every year. The majority of these numbers come from the fringes of urban margins, located in legal and illegal settlements with insufficient housing and sanitation. This has been caused by the massive migration, both internal and transnational, into cities. This has caused growth rates of urban populations and spatial concentrations not seen before in history. These issues raise problems in the political, social, and economic arenas. The record-setting populations living in urban slums have little or no access to education, healthcare, or the urban economy.
Some features of the new urban age resemble those of the industrial urbanization of the North during the 19th and early 20th centuries, but to replicate policies that were successful for Europe and North America would not be an efficient path for the increasingly Global South and East.
==Agglomerations==
Another list also defines megacities as urban agglomerations (continuous urbanization). Currently (''2007''), the agglomerations of more than 10,000,000 inhabitants are as follows :
{| class="wikitable"
!Rank
!Agglomeration name
!Country
!Population
|-
|1
|[[Tokyo]]
|{{JPN}}
|33,600,000
|-
|2
|[[Seoul]]
|{{KOR}}
|23,400,000
|-
|3
|[[Mexico City]]
|{{MEX}}
|22,400,000
|-
|4
|[[New York City]]
|{{USA}}
|21,900,000
|-
|5
|[[Mumbai]]
|{{IND}}
|21,600,000
|-
|6
|[[Delhi]]
|{{IND}}
|21,500,000
|-
|7
|[[São Paulo]]
|{{BRA}}
|20,600,000
|-
|8
|[[Los Angeles]]
|{{USA}}
|18,000,000
|-
|9
|[[Shanghai]]
|{{CHN}}
|17,500,000
|-
|10
|[[Osaka]]
|{{JPN}}
|16,700,000
|-
|11
|[[Cairo]]
|{{EGY}}
|16,100,000
|-
|12
|[[Kolkata]]
|{{IND}}
|15,700,000
|-
|13
|[[Metro Manila]]
|{{PHL}}
|15,600,000
|-
|14
|[[Jakarta]]
|{{IDN}}
|15,100,000
|-
|15
|[[Karachi]]
|{{PAK}}
|15,100,000
|-
|16
|[[Guangzhou]]
|{{CHN}}
|14,700,000
|-
|17
|[[Buenos Aires]]
|{{ARG}}
|13,600,000
|-
|18
|[[Moscow]]
|{{RUS}}
|13,500,000
|-
|19
|[[Beijing]]
|{{CHN}}
|12,800,000
|-
|20
|[[Dhaka]]
|{{BGD}}
|12,600,000
|-
|21
|[[Rio de Janeiro]]
|{{BRA}}
|12,300,000
|-
|22
|[[Tehran]]
|{{IRN}}
|12,100,000
|-
|23
|[[London]]
|{{UK}}
|12,000,000
|-
|24
|[[Istanbul]]
|{{TUR}}
|11,800,000
|-
|25
|[[Lagos]]
|{{NGR}}
|10,100,000
|-
|26
|[[Paris]]
|{{FRA}}
|10,000,000
|}
''Source: [http://www.citypopulation.de/World.html City Population]''
== Canadian usage==
In [[Canada]], the 1990s saw the forced [[Amalgamation (politics)|amalgamation]] of several municipal entities in the provinces of [[Nova Scotia]], [[Ontario]] and [[Quebec]] into larger new municipalities. The process created what was labelled a ''megacity'' by the media, although none of the created municipalities fit in the definition of a megacity in the international sense.
Examples of megacities in Canada include:
* [[Halifax Regional Municipality|Halifax]] - the cities of Halifax and Dartmouth and surrounding municipalities were merged in 1996 into the [[Halifax Regional Municipality]], often called a "megacity," with a total population under 400,000.
* [[Calgary-Edmonton Corridor]] - It is the one of the most urbanized and densest in Canada and the fastest growing regions in the country due to the recently surging wealth of oil. Six of the 25 fastest growing municipalities in Canada are within this region. The area has over 2.6 million people.{{cite web
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* [[Toronto]] - In 1998 the municipalities that constituted the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto were merged into a new [[Toronto|City of Toronto]], currently the largest of the Canadian cities, with a population of 2,503,281 in 2006. The Greater Toronto Area (or GTA) had a population of 5,555,912 in 2006.
* [[Kawartha Lakes, Ontario]] - the primarily rural Victoria County had its townships, towns and villages merged into a "megacity" in 2000. The area has a population of only 70,000 (several thousand less than nearby city of [[Peterborough, Ontario|Peterborough]]) yet takes up an area of 3,059.22 km² giving it a density of only a mere 22.6 persons per km².
* [[Ottawa]] - the municipalities that constituted the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton were merged into a new [[Ottawa|City of Ottawa]] in 2001.
* [[Gatineau]] - five municipalities in southwestern Quebec (Gatineau, Hull, Aylmer, Buckingham, and Masson-Angers) were merged into a new [[Gatineau, Quebec|City of Gatineau]] in 2002.
* [[Montreal]] - all of the municipalities on the island of Montreal were merged into a new City of Montreal for a short period of time until [[January 1]], 2006, when a partial demerger occurred.
* [[Greater Sudbury]] - resulted from the merger of the former [[Regional Municipality of Sudbury]] in 2001.
* [[Hamilton, Ontario|Hamilton]] - the municipalities that constituted Hamilton-Wentworth merged in a new [[Hamilton, Ontario|City of Hamilton]] in 2001.
For more information on Ontario "megacities," see the article on the [[Common Sense Revolution]].
== In fiction ==
Fictional megacities feature in much [[dystopia]]n [[science fiction]], with examples such as [[the Sprawl]], featured in William Gibson's ''Neuromancer'', and [[Mega-City One]], a megalopolis of over 400 million people across the east coast of the [[United States]], features in the [[Judge Dredd]] comic, serialised in [[2000 AD (comic)|''2000 AD'']]. ''[[Demolition Man (film)|Demolition Man]]'' (1993) features a megacity called "[[San Angeles]]", formed from the joining of [[Los Angeles]], [[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]], [[San Diego]], and the surrounding metropolitan regions following a massive earthquake.
''[[Soylent Green]]'' (1973) depicted New York City in 2022 with a population of 40 mil. The city has a huge food shortage, which leads one company, the manufacturers of the popular food "Soylent Green" to create food out of the deceased, telling customers that it is plankton. It is not said how large the city is, but the main character does make the comment that something is "over the city line in Philadelphia" making the viewer wonder if the city has sprawled that far.
Planet-wide megacities ([[ecumenopoleis]]) have been depicted, including [[Trantor]] in [[Isaac Asimov]]'s [[Foundation series|''Foundation'' series]] of books, [[Coruscant]] in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' universe, 'City Europe' in David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series of books, [[Holy Terra]] and the hive cities of [[Necromunda]] in [[Warhammer 40,000]], and [[Ravnica]] in the eponymous [[Magic: The Gathering]] expansion. In [[Stargate Atlantis]], the [[Asurans]] appear to have an extremely large city that may or may not be an [[ecumenopolis]], named [[Asurans|Asuras]].
Many of these fictional depictions were inspired by [[Fritz Lang]]'s [[1927]] film, [[Metropolis (1927 movie)|''Metropolis'']]. [[Ridley Scott]]'s [[1982]] film, ''[[Blade Runner]]'', features an influential depiction of [[Los Angeles]] in [[2019]]. The MMORPG game "[[Guild Wars]]" has a massive, fictional megacity on its southern continent, Cantha, called Kaineng City which is very run down, corrupted, and in colossal slums and poverty. The city is a daily struggle for survival infested with crime, plagues, starvation, and a massive sewer system called the "undercity".
Another MMORPG game ''[[City of Heroes]]'' is set in the fictional megacity known as Paragon City, which contains two other cities: Galaxy City and Skyway City. In the two novels based on the game as well as the official timeline for the game, Paragon City has existed at least as far back as the early to mid-1800s. Paragon is depicted as being one of if not the single largest city on Earth in its world setting. The sprawling metropolis featured in ''[[The Matrix]]'' series of films can be considered a megacity. While the city is never referenced by name in the films, in the MMORPG ''[[The Matrix Online]]'', the city itself is simply called the [[Mega City (The Matrix)|Mega City]]. The city is based on [[Sydney, Australia|Sydney]], [[Chicago]], and [[Oakland, California]].
''[[The Fifth Element]]'' has a parody of New York City set in 2263 which is completely built up with depleted water levels the city is transformed into a much bigger metropolis than it is today. Buildings are so high that people use flying cars to get around and the ground level of the [[Earth]] is obscured by cloud cover.
==References==
{{sourcesstart}}
{{reflist}}
{{sourcesend}}
Soja, Edward W.. "Postmetropolis, Critical Studies of Cities and Regions". Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2000 (alk. paper, ISBN 1-55718-000-3; paperback, ISBN 1-55718-001-1)
== See also ==
*[[Amalgamation (politics)]]
*[[Arcology]]
*[[Conurbation]]
*[[Consolidated city-county]]
*[[Ekistics]]
*[[Metropolis]]
*[[Principles of Intelligent Urbanism]]
*[[Global city]]
*[[Megalopolis (city type)]]
*[[Metroplex]]
*[[Metropolitan area]]
*[[Urban sprawl]]
*[[World largest cities]]
*[[List of metropolitan areas by population]]
*[[Overpopulation]]
*[[World population]]
==External links==
*[http://www.un.org/esa/population/unpop.htm United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division]
*[http://current.com/items/86999401_lagos_la_vida_loca Lagos la Vida Loca] by [[Mariana van Zeller]] on [[Current TV]] Nov. 2007
*[http://www.megacities.uni-koeln.de/ Megacities Task Force]
*[http://www.radicalcartography.net/?mega Maps of US Megacities] from radicalcartography.net
* ''[http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jun07/moremegacity IEEE Spectrum]'' report on "Engineering the Megacity"
*[http://www.irmgard-coninx-stiftung.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/urbanplanet/Urban_Planet_Background_Paper.pdf]
[[Category:Urban studies and planning terminology]]
[[Category:Human habitats]]
[[ar:قائمة بأكبر مدن العالم كثافة سكانية]]
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[[es:Megaciudad]]
[[eo:Plej grandaj urboj laŭ enloĝantaro]]
[[fr:Liste des mégapoles]]
[[id:Daftar wilayah metropolitan berdasarkan populasi]]
[[he:ערי מיליונים]]
[[ka:მსოფლიოს უდიდესი აგლომერაციები]]
[[nl:Lijst van grootste metropolen]]
[[ja:都市圏人口の順位]]
[[pl:megamiasto]]
[[pt:Megacidade]]
[[ru:Мегалополис]]
[[sk:Zoznam najväčších miest]]
[[fi:Megapoli]]