4 ms·

I always find discussion of the world biggest city a bit of a pointless exercise considering it’s entirely dependent on how administrative lines are drawn. Hig

by refurb 11mo ago

I always find discussion of the world biggest city a bit of a pointless exercise considering it’s entirely dependent on how administrative lines are drawn. Highly fragmented metro areas are regarded as smaller than consolidated metro areas, whereas they might be the same size overall.

paxys 11mo ago
These rankings always consider city to be a contiguous metro area, regardless of how internal lines are drawn. Otherwise most of them wouldn't show up on the list at all. "Los Angeles" for example has close to 200 indiviudal cities.
- refurb 11mo ago
  That is true for this report, based on the methodology https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/undesa_pd_2025_faq_wup25.pdf https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.deve... However, instead of an arbitrary administrative definition, they used an arbitrary cutoff for population density. Thus it still comes down to a subjective drawing of lines around the city.
- yieldcrv 11mo ago
  and Los Angeles City would still be on the list
  - paxys 11mo ago
    Los Angeles city has 3.8 million people so no, it is nowhere close to a megacity.
- dredmorbius 11mo ago
  Demographics and geography approaches this through the notion of "metropolitan statistical area" (MSA) in the US, or equivalent concepts elsewhere. An MSA is defined as a "geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the region". <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area> Other rough equivalents are metropolitan areas (UK), census metropolitan areas (Canada), functional urban areas (FUA) (EU), urban agglomerations (India). All of these use functional and behavioural characteristics to get around simple boundary-demarkation. Urbanisations may even span national borders, as with the greater Basel region, Lake Constance, or Strasbourg-Ortenau.

by refurb 11mo ago

paxys 11mo ago

These rankings always consider city to be a contiguous metro area, regardless of how internal lines are drawn. Otherwise most of them wouldn't show up on the list at all. "Los Angeles" for example has close to 200 indiviudal cities.

refurb 11mo ago
That is true for this report, based on the methodology https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/undesa_pd_2025_faq_wup25.pdf https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.deve... However, instead of an arbitrary administrative definition, they used an arbitrary cutoff for population density. Thus it still comes down to a subjective drawing of lines around the city.
yieldcrv 11mo ago
and Los Angeles City would still be on the list
- paxys 11mo ago
  Los Angeles city has 3.8 million people so no, it is nowhere close to a megacity.
dredmorbius 11mo ago
Demographics and geography approaches this through the notion of "metropolitan statistical area" (MSA) in the US, or equivalent concepts elsewhere. An MSA is defined as a "geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the region". <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area> Other rough equivalents are metropolitan areas (UK), census metropolitan areas (Canada), functional urban areas (FUA) (EU), urban agglomerations (India). All of these use functional and behavioural characteristics to get around simple boundary-demarkation. Urbanisations may even span national borders, as with the greater Basel region, Lake Constance, or Strasbourg-Ortenau.