Which megacities have you seen?

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

that's just the CB's wacky-ass MSA/CSA county mash-up silliness. the chicago CSA now includes nearly 11,000 freaking square miles (bigger than 9 US states!), the vast majority of which is just cornfields and small rural towns.

actual "Chicago" (disregarding municipal borders) is a city of around 8.8M people on ~2,500 sq. miles of land. we'll get more precise figures if/when the CB ever decides to release the 2020 UA data.

hmm, for comparison for cleveland that is an approximate 50 mile half loop -- so that would be 3.3M souls living just short of sandusky to the west and just short of ashtabula to the east, and then down and around wooster, canton and warren. although that would cover the extended cle metro not the city it's interesting vs chicago or i guess chicagolandia.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I've read the claim that Chicago was the third largest city on earth, in the 1930's. Though I'm sure the data-keeping was terrible back then, and cross-national comparisons are probably pretty junky.

I assume NYC and London were #1 and #2, so that would mean Chicago was larger than Tokyo, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, Moscow. Not so sure about that. I see 10 million in the Tokyo area in 1930, so Tokyo was almost certainly much bigger. Paris has a pretty huge prewar suburban fringe, so had to be at least comparable to prewar Chicago.

Paris was larger, Tokyo maybe. If Chicago is Cook+DuPage, than it's a bit smaller than Berlin; if it's only Cook, than Berlin is a bit larger.

[twister244]

Beijing
London
Los Angeles
New York
Paris
Shanghai

I didn't realize Paris was considered that large.... I spent a month in London and a month in Paris last fall. Definitely don't regret either.

Beijing/Shanghai for study abroad for a short while when I was an undergrad.

Domestic through regular travel.

Heavily considering Brazil this upcoming Winter to escape the death grip of Chicago winters and work remotely from there for a month or two. How do folks enjoy it? Looks like amazing cities (Rio/Sau Paulo), but not sure if I would make it by myself with little/no Portuguese.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by twister244

Heavily considering Brazil this upcoming Winter to escape the death grip of Chicago winters and work remotely from there for a month or two. How do folks enjoy it? Looks like amazing cities (Rio/Sau Paulo), but not sure if I would make it by myself with little/no Portuguese.

You'll be dealing with hotels, nice restaurants (go there, with the current exchanges, luxury ones will be as expensive as a hot dog in the US) and touristic places. You won't have a problem speaking English. If you have to ask instructions for strangers, than it's very hard. Focus on middle class young people.

[mrnyc]

^ exactly. and as always, learn your 20 words and phrases of portugese, use them and be polite and you will be fine. the only down thing is its poor and they will always be trying lowkey ripping you off stuff, so just be aware with spending and watching your money. otherwise, i love brasil, its a great place to visit. highly recommended.



***


what were the largest mega ancient cities?

i think tenochtitlan (around 150k) and cahokia (around 20k) for north america?

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by twister244

Heavily considering Brazil this upcoming Winter to escape the death grip of Chicago winters and work remotely from there for a month or two. How do folks enjoy it? Looks like amazing cities (Rio/Sau Paulo), but not sure if I would make it by myself with little/no Portuguese.

Funny, my partner and I have been entertaining the idea of going to Salvador... hehe and it seems we've been drinking a lot of cachaça lately.

We were gonna go to Sri Lanka in 2020 but COVID killed that; and the money we had set aside for that trip eventually got spent on other things, so... it'll probably be a while before we actually go on any international trip.

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by lio45

I'm really surprised at how many people miss Paris (especially the ones who have London; it's already less surprising that someone didn't yet go to Western Europe and thus would be missing both).

Huh? Most posters said they'd gone to Paris before I explicitly noticed it.
When I registered to this site 10 years ago, I thought most members on here would've made the trip up here already, so I am hardly surprised.

Originally Posted by twister244

I didn't realize Paris was considered that large....

Map of Île-de-France known as the Paris region (area: 12,012 km² / 4,638 sq mi)


https://comersis.com/Les-aires-urbai...ualite-14.html

White: Central Paris
Purple: urban area
Pink: rural areas

The light blue and lighter pink area to the east is something else very small around Provins. Not the Paris urban area as it is in the countryside.

The figure of 11+ million is the population of the entire purple area, that must be something like 1,000 square miles.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by pdxtex

Chicago is a mega city. Everyone knows it. CSA population per Wikipedia is 9.986 million. The average attendance of a bears game is 60,000. Assuming only 1/4 of fans traveled from out of state, tadah, 10 million!

Totally incorrect, as the Chicago CSA ALREADY includes parts of Indiana and Wisconsin.

The correct assumption that needs to be satisfied to get over 10M is that a quarter of the butts in the Bears stadium have to be from outside the Chicago CSA, which is a much taller order than just being from out of state.

[MolsonExport]

Demographica
Largest World Urban Areas: 1950


Rank Urban Area Population
1 New York 12,914,000
2 London 12,088,000
3 Tokyo-Yokohama 8,400,000
4 Moscow 7,000,000
5 Rhine-Ruhr-Wupper 6,900,000
6 Paris 6,650,000
7 Shanghai 5,800,000
8 Chicago 5,587,000
9 Buenos Aires 4,618,000
10 Calcutta 4,600,000
11 Osaka-Kobe 4,425,000
12 Los Angeles 4,368,000
13 Leningrad 4,200,000
14 Beijing 3,900,000
15 Philadelphia 3,671,000
16 Berlin 3,300,000
17 Mexico City 3,125,000
18 Detroit 3,016,000
19 Bombay 3,000,000
20 Rio de Janeiro 2,413,000
21 Boston 2,411,000
22 Cairo 2,370,000
23 Birmingham 2,242,000
24 San Francisco 2,241,000
25 Sao Paulo 2,228,000
26 Pittsburgh 2,213,000
27 Hong Kong 2,030,000
28 Kyoto 1,833,000
29 Vienna 1,796,000
30 Tianjin 1,772,000
31 St. Louis 1,719,000
32 Hamburg 1,687,000
33 Rome 1,658,000
34 Sydney 1,611,000
35 Budapest 1,595,000
36 Montreal 1,539,000
37 Madrid 1,527,000
38 Barcelona 1,500,000
38 Manchester 1,500,000
38 Milan 1,500,000
41 Manila 1,475,000
42 Cleveland 1,466,000
43 Washington 1,464,000
44 Santiago 1,450,000
45 Seoul 1,446,000
46 Wuhan 1,445,000
47 Madras 1,416,000
48 Guanghzou 1,413,000
49 Baltimore 1,405,000
50 Liverpool 1,388,000
51 Melbourne 1,360,000
52 Athens 1,271,000
53 Toronto 1,262,000
54 Nagoya 1,250,000
54 Naples 1,250,000
56 Copenhagen 1,200,000
57 Delhi 1,193,000
58 Minneapolis-St. Paul 1,151,000
59 Amsterdam 1,125,000
60 Buffalo 1,089,000
61 Glasgow 1,087,000
62 Hyderabad 1,086,000
63 Karachi 1,068,000
64 Alexandria 1,060,000
65 Brussels 1,050,000
66 Bucharest 1,042,000
67 Mukden 1,021,000
68 Cologne 1,010,000
69 Havana 1,000,000
69 Tsingtao 1,000,000
69 Warsaw 1,000,000
69 Turin 1,000,000
69 Istanbul 1,000,000
69 Kiev 1,000,000
69 Gorky 1,000,000
69 Chungking 1,000,000
69 Stockholm 1,000,000
69 Lisbon 1,000,000

The 10 Most Populous Cities in the World in 1940 Compared to Today

The Biggest Cities in the World in 1940

New York City, USA – 1940 population: ~10.4 million. Rank today: 44; population: ~8.2 million

Tokyo, Japan – 1940 population: ~8.7 million. Rank today: 1; population: ~37.3 million

London, UK – 1940 population: ~8.4 million. Rank today: 35; population: ~9.4 million

Paris, France – 1940 population: ~5.6 million. Rank today: 28; population: ~11 million

Chicago, USA – 1940 population: ~4.4 million; Rank today: 181; population: ~2.7 million

Buenos Aires, Argentina – 1940 population: ~4 million. Rank today: 14; population: ~15.2 million

Moscow, Russia – 1940 population: ~3.8 million. Rank today: 24; population: ~12.5 million

Shanghai, China – 1940 population: ~3.7 million. Rank today: 3; population: ~27.8 million

Kolkata, India – 1940 population: ~3.3 million. Rank today: 15; population: ~15 million

Osaka, Japan – 1940 population: ~3.2 million. Rank today: 107; population: ~4 million

Top 10 Biggest Cities in the World Today That Didn’t Make the Cut in 1940

And, just to round things out, here are the cities in the top 10 most populous today that weren’t in the top 10 in 1940. Only two cities (Tokyo and Shanghai) made the top 10 on both lists.

Delhi, India – Rank today: 2; population: ~31.1 million. 1940 population: ~915,000

Sao Paulo, Brazil – Rank today: 4; population: ~22.2 million. 1940 population: ~2 million

Mexico City, Mexico – Rank today: 5; population: ~21.9 million. 1940 population: ~1.9 million

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Rank today: 6; population: ~21.7 million. 1940 population: ~237,000

Cairo, Egypt – Rank today: 7; population: ~21.3 million. 1940 population: ~1.8 million

Beijing, China – Rank today: 8; population: ~20.9 million. 1940 population: ~4 million

Mumbai, India – Rank today: 9; population: ~20.7 million. 1940 population: ~1.6 million

evidently the above list compares apples and oranges (neglects greater NYC but does not for Tokyo?)

[Yuri]

According to Brazilian Census (metro areas):

1950
Rio de Janeiro: 3,178,310
São Paulo: 2,662,786

1940
Rio de Janeiro: 2,227,245
São Paulo: 1,568,045

1920
Rio de Janeiro: 1,402,399
São Paulo: 702,248

1910
Rio de Janeiro: 1,131,274
São Paulo: 463,819

1890
Rio de Janeiro: 672,200
São Paulo: 132,912

1872
Rio de Janeiro: 442,777
São Paulo: 65,944

[jigglysquishy]

I know Hong Kong isn't technically a mega city, but it sure feels like it.

It has a "bigger city" vibe than anywhere else I've been, including Tokyo and New York.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

The Biggest Cities in the World in 1940

New York City, USA – 1940 population: ~10.4 million. Rank today: 44; population: ~8.2 million

Chicago, USA – 1940 population: ~4.4 million; Rank today: 181; population: ~2.7 million

those don't make any sense.

they're using metro area population figures for 1940, but then using city-proper-only population figures for today.

WTF?

pick one or the other, not both. data consistency matters.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

those don't make any sense.

they're using metro area population figures for 1940, but then using city-proper-only population figures for today.

Not even that. He used 2020 city population for NYC and 2020 metro population for Tokyo.

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

New York City, USA – 1940 population: ~10.4 million. Rank today: 44; population: ~8.2 million

Tokyo, Japan – 1940 population: ~8.7 million. Rank today: 1; population: ~37.3 million

[Yuri]

What would be New York metro area in 1940 in your guys opinion? I came up with New York City, Nassau, Westchester and the 4 closest NJ counties: 10,662,671 people overall. Chicago (Cook+DuPage) was at 4,166,822.

Even though London was world's largest city for almost 200 years, New York was world's first megacity, getting there in the 1930's.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I've read the claim that Chicago was the third largest city on earth, in the 1930's. Though I'm sure the data-keeping was terrible back then, and cross-national comparisons are probably pretty junky.

I assume NYC and London were #1 and #2, so that would mean Chicago was larger than Tokyo, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, Moscow. Not so sure about that. I see 10 million in the Tokyo area in 1930, so Tokyo was almost certainly much bigger. Paris has a pretty huge prewar suburban fringe, so had to be at least comparable to prewar Chicago.

Pre-war Berlin and Chicago/Cook County were very similarly sized. I think Berlin proper had a larger population than Chicago during the 1930s. I'm not sure how to count the Berlin metro figure from that era. I used Cook County to estimate Chicago's metro from that era.

[WonderlandPark2]

Been to these:

Bangkok
Beijing
Buenos Aires
Cairo
Delhi
Guangzhou
Ho Chi Minh City
Istanbul
Lima
London
Los Angeles
Metro Manila
Mexico City
Moscow
Mumbai
Nagoya
New York
Osaka
Paris
Seoul
Shanghai
Shenzhen
Tokyo

a bit confused by Nagoya, its not that big a city, Osaka/Tokyo seem many multiples larger

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Pre-war Berlin and Chicago/Cook County were very similarly sized. I think Berlin proper had a larger population than Chicago during the 1930s. I'm not sure how to count the Berlin metro figure from that era. I used Cook County to estimate Chicago's metro from that era.

I guess Berlin was indeed larger than Chicago till WWII.

1939 estimates for the city proper was at 4,330,640. We could include Potsdam (125,664), Falkensee (24,824), Kleinmachnow (12,565), Teltow (13,309), Hennigsdorf (13,383), Panketal (11,538) and many others.

Berlin metro area would be around 4.6 million-4.7 million, clearly ahead Chicago.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by jigglysquishy

I know Hong Kong isn't technically a mega city, but it sure feels like it.

It's slowly being absorbed by two other cities on the list - Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Add all three together and you've got a mega-mega city.

[pdxtex]

1950 Detroit, 3 million!! Geez. Can you imagine? Is anyone here that old? Tell us about the high scrapers cap'N walker.

[Investing In Chicago]

New York City
LA
London
Paris
Moscow
Istanbul
Tokyo
Hong Kong

To me, Tokyo felt far and away the largest city, it didn't have the intensity of New York, but it felt like the city went on forever.