Indonesia’s Jakarta now the world’s largest city, Tokyo falls to third: UN

[sopas ej]

From Al Jazeera:

Indonesia’s Jakarta now the world’s largest city, Tokyo falls to third: UN

Nine of the top 10 mega-cities are in Asia, with Bangladesh’s Dhaka projected to be the world’s largest city by 2050.

A new United Nations report has found that Indonesia’s capital Jakarta is the world’s largest city with 41.9 million people living there, followed by Dhaka in Bangladesh, which is home to 36.6 million.

A low-lying coastal city located in the west of the densely populated island of Java, Jakarta rose from second place to replace Tokyo, which had been named the world’s largest city in the UN’s most recent assessment published back in 2000.

The Japanese capital’s relatively steady population of 33.4 million saw it fall to third place behind Bangladesh’s densely populated capital, Dhaka, which jumped to second place from ninth and is now projected to become the world’s largest city by 2050.

[montréaliste]

Here is one category where I choose Third place as the most desirable.

[streetscaper]

I thought Tokyo had like 38 million, not 33 like the article says

[iheartthed]

They use a pretty high population density threshold (1,500/sq km or 3,885/sq mi) for this report which filters out a lot of population that we attribute to urban agglomerations in North America. A threshold that high eliminates nearly all US Sun Belt cities.

[Crawford]

Isn't Jakarta sinking, and the world's most vulnerable city to climate change? Seems like a pretty crazy place to add people.

And Dhaka is just insanity. I've never been, but you can see it on Streetview. It's a total nightmare. I do have a friend who went for business, and it was like a 3 hour taxi ride from airport to hotel.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Isn't Jakarta sinking, and the world's most vulnerable city to climate change? Seems like a pretty crazy place to add people.

And Dhaka is just insanity. I've never been, but you can see it on Streetview. It's a total nightmare. I do have a friend who went for business, and it was like a 3 hour taxi ride from airport to hotel.

Both cities are at risk of being severely affected in the next 30-50 years, due to climate change. Aging or already poor performing infrastructure that cannot keep up with new construction demands, booming populations, and corrupt local and federal governments in each city/country, the concern is that all of these issues amount to a recipe for disaster, and potentially millions of people could be affected by major climate/weather events in a regular, recurring basis.

Tokyo is such a totally different beast, because not only do infrastructure needs align with population shifts, the city is right along the ring of fire and exposed to severe earthquake impacts (both in-situ seismic events, as well as tsunami damage), and yet they are far better prepared for all such possibilities, more so than any other major city on earth.

[Chocolite]

Originally Posted by montréaliste

Here is one category where I choose Third place as the most desirable.

100% agreed. I haven't been to Dhaka, but have been to Tokyo and Jakarta, and I would choose to live in Tokyo 100 times over living in Jakarta. Everything I've ever heard about Dhaka is that it's a cesspool.
In 25 years from now most of the world's largest cities will be cesspools that are so crowded and polluted, no amount of infrastructure can make them nice places to live.

[wanderer34]

Tokyo is still the Gateway to the Far East, only due to geography, and it's still a major market alongside Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, London and New York. For many, Jakarta is relatively unknown just due to it's geographical position, and amongst my parts, Jakarta is relatively unknown.

[Docere]

From 33rd to first in 7 years?

[Gresto]

Tokyo has been most-populous for decades.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by montréaliste

Here is one category where I choose Third place as the most desirable.

Well, third IS the one with the hairy chest.


So, if you're into that.......

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Docere

From 33rd to first in 7 years?

You can download the historical data on the UN website and Jakarta has been the biggest "city" since 2010, according to their methodology. The UN has a much more strict definition than other orgs that do world city statistics, and Tokyo is still the largest city in the world according to most of those.

[Docere]

Yeah, that makes sense. I was surprised by the NYT "cast."

[Wigs]

Tokyo is like: Jakarta, you can have the title. We have Shinkansen travelling across Japan at 320km/hr with impeccable safety and punctuality, and Tokyo has arguably the best Metro system in the world.

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[BnaBreaker]

Yeah, being the world's largest city is absolutely nothing to brag about if said city doesn't have the ability to provide the majority of people living there with at least a basic standard of living. Tokyo can provide that. Jakarta and Dhaka can't. Jakarta has a chance to, but despite the leaps in quality of life Bangladesh as a whole has made over the past several decades, I don't think Dhaka will ever be capable of that, and that is of course to say nothing of the massive climate change risks it faces.

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Well, third IS the one with the hairy chest.


So, if you're into that.......

Lol. I thought "Maiden Japan" meant pretty smooth skinned.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

...I don't think Dhaka will ever be capable of that, and that is of course to say nothing of the massive climate change risks it faces.

This. Entities projecting all these coastal cities to be these massive megacities by 2050 all ignore the incredibly obvious fact that they will be inherently unlivable... not, like, food desert unlivable, but, like, functionally incapable of inhabitation.

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by SpawnOfVulcan

This. Entities projecting all these coastal cities to be these massive megacities by 2050 all ignore the incredibly obvious fact that they will be inherently unlivable... not, like, food desert unlivable, but, like, functionally incapable of inhabitation.

Well, in the case of Jakarta, it literally is a sinking ship.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

Yeah, being the world's largest city is absolutely nothing to brag about if said city doesn't have the ability to provide the majority of people living there with at least a basic standard of living. Tokyo can provide that. Jakarta and Dhaka can't. Jakarta has a chance to, but despite the leaps in quality of life Bangladesh as a whole has made over the past several decades, I don't think Dhaka will ever be capable of that, and that is of course to say nothing of the massive climate change risks it faces.

What does "basic standard of living" mean?

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by montréaliste

Here is one category where I choose Third place as the most desirable.

This.

Tokyo is a joy to get around in, whether walking or taking transit. So much to see, so much to do, safe, clean...just fantastic.

those other two "bigger" metros? not so much.