ancient cities

888 Urbanization
Table 1 Largest Cities in Europe, 1050–1800
1050 1200 1330 1500 1650 1800
Córdoba 150,000 Palermo 150,000 Granada 150,000 Paris 225,000 Paris 400,000 London 948,000
Palermo 120,000 Paris 110,000 Paris 150,000 Naples 125,000 London 350,000 Paris 550,000
Seville 90,000 Seville 80,000 Venice 110,000 Milan 100,000 Naples 300,000 Naples 430,000
Salerno 50,000 Venice 70,000 Genoa 100,000 Venice 100,000 Lisbon 150,000 Vienna 247,000
Venice 45,000 Florence 60,000 Milan 100,000 Granada 70,000 Venice 140,000 Amsterdam 217,000
Regensburg 40,000 Granada 60,000 Florence 95,000 Prague 70,000 Milan 120,000 Dublin 200,000
Toledo 37,000 Córdoba 60,000 Seville 90,000 Lisbon 65,000 Amsterdam 120,000 Lisbon 195,000
Rome 35,000 Cologne 50,000 Córdoba 60,000 Tours 60,000 Rome 110,000 Berlin 172,000
Barbastro 35,000 Leon 40,000 Naples 60,000 Genoa 50,000 Madrid 100,000 Madrid 168,000
Cartagena 33,000 Ypres 40,000 Cologne 54,000 Ghent 55,000 Palermo 100,000 Rome 153,000
Source: Adapted from Gottdiener and Hutchison, 2005.
and cities have dominated artistic, cultural, and
scientific achievement since the Italian Renaissance
if not before, relatively few persons lived in cities
until recent years. In 1900 just 12 percent of the
world’s population lived in urban areas, and the
10 largest cities were located in Europe, the United
States, and Japan. No city had had a population of
10 million persons (New York City would be the
first to reach this level by mid-century). In 2000,
just under half (47 percent) of the world’s population
lived in urban areas, and 19 cities had populations
of 10 million or more—only 4 of the 19 were
in industrialized countries. During the past decade,
and for the first time in human history, more than
half of the world’s population lived in urban areas,
and the United Nations estimates that the world’s
urban population will increase from some 5 billion
to more than 7 billion persons in the next two
decades; by the year 2030, in other words, 60 percent
of the world’s population will live in urban
areas. Most of this increase will take place in
urban agglomerations in the developing world.
The origin of cities and urban life in Mesopotamia
is often described as the first urban revolution and
the emergence of large cities in the West following
the Industrial Revolution as the second urban revolution.
The emergence of the megacity in the last
decades of the twentieth century will mark the third
urban revolution.
The Megacity
Megacities are big cities, defined as metropolitan
areas with populations of 10 million or more persons.
At the turn of the century there were some 20
megacities (see Table 2), and the number is
expected to double by 2030. There are several
things that make the megacity of the twenty-first
Table 2 Population of the World’s Megacities, 2006
Rank City/Urban Area Country
Population
in 2006
(millions)
1 Tokyo Japan 35.53
2 Mexico City Mexico 19.24
3 Mumbai (Bombay) India 18.84
4 New York USA 18.65
5 São Paulo Brazil 18.61
6 Delhi India 16
7 Calcutta India 14.57
8 Jakarta Indonesia 13.67
9 Buenos Aires Argentina 13.52
10 Dhaka Bangladesh 13.09
11 Shanghai China 12.63
12 Los Angeles USA 12.22
13 Karachi Pakistan 12.2
14 Lagos Nigeria 11.7
15 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 11.62
16 Osaka, Kobe Japan 11.32
17 Cairo Egypt 11.29
18 Beijing China 10.85
19 Moscow Russia 10.82
20 Metro Manila Philippines 10.8
21 Istanbul Turkey 10
Source: City Mayors. 2009. “Urban Statistics.” Retrieved
July 24, 2009 (http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/urban_
2006_1.html).