# What's the largest city you've never heard of? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 8, 2001, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397 "2001-09-08T14:47:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/1 "2001-09-08T14:47:54Z")
Here is a list of the world’s 100 most populous cities. Start from the top and count down until you reach one you’ve never heard of, then tell me which one it was. from [http://www.citypopulation.de](http://www.citypopulation.de) 1 Tokyo Japan 34500000 incl. Yokohama, Kawasaki 2 New York USA 21400000 incl. Newark, Paterson 3 Soul (Seoul) South Korea 20250000 incl. Inchon, Songnam 4 Ciudad de México Mexico 19300000 incl. Nezahualcóyotl, Ecatepec, Naucalpan 5 Mumbai (Bombay) India 18950000 incl. Kalyan, Thane, Ulhasnagar 6 São Paulo Brazil 18450000 incl. Guarulhos 7 Osaka Japan 17900000 incl. Kobe, Kyoto 8 Los Angeles USA 16600000 incl. Riverside, Anaheim 9 Al-Qahirah [Cairo] Egypt 14700000 incl. Al-Jizah, Shubra al-Khaymah 10 Manila Philippines 13800000 incl. Quezon City, Calookan 11 Buenos Aires Argentina 13400000 incl. San Justo, La Plata 12 Jakarta Indonesia 13400000 13 Calcutta India 13200000 incl. Haora 14 Moskva [Moscow] Russia 13200000 15 Delhi India 12250000 16 London Great Britain and Northern Ireland 11800000 17 Shanghai China 11800000 18 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 11200000 incl. Nova Iguaçu, São Gonçalo 19 Karachi (incl. div. cantonments) Pakistan 10750000 20 Istanbul Turkey 10600000 21 Tehran [Teheran] Iran 10600000 incl. Karaj 22 Dhaka (Dacca) Bangladesh 9800000 23 Paris France 9750000 24 Chicago USA 9300000 25 Beijing [Peking] China 8500000 26 Washington USA 7750000 incl. Baltimore 27 Bogotá (Santa Fe de) Colombia 7700000 28 Lima Peru 7550000 29 Hong Kong (Xianggang) China 7350000 30 T’aipei Taiwan 7350000 31 Al-Khartum [Khartoum] Sudan 7200000 32 Lagos Nigeria 7200000 33 San Francisco USA 7150000 incl. Oakland, San Jose 34 Krung Thep [Bangkok] Thailand 7050000 35 Hyderabad India 6700000 36 Johannesburg South Africa 6650000 incl. Soweto, East Rand, West Rand 37 Chennai (Madras) India 6600000 38 Chongqing China 6450000 39 Philadelphia USA 6250000 40 Essen Germany 6050000 Ruhrgebiet / The Ruhr 41 Kinshasa Congo (Dem. Rep.) 6050000 42 Boston USA 5900000 43 Lahore (incl. Cantonment) Pakistan 5850000 44 Detroit USA 5800000 incl. Windsor (Canada) 45 Saint-Petersburg (Leningrad) Russia 5550000 46 Bangalore India 5500000 47 Dallas USA 5400000 incl. Fort Worth 48 Santiago Chile 5400000 49 Tianjin China 5350000 50 Toronto Canada 5200000 51 Nagoya Japan 5150000 52 Madrid Spain 5050000 53 Baghdad [Bagdad] Iraq 4950000 54 Al-Iskandariyah [Alexandria] Egypt 4850000 55 Houston USA 4800000 56 Yangon (Rangoon) Myanmar 4600000 57 Wuhan China 4450000 58 Belo Horizonte Brazil 4400000 59 Guangzhou [Canton] China 4400000 60 Harbin China 4400000 61 Shenyang China 4350000 62 Atlanta USA 4300000 63 Caracas Venezuela 4300000 64 Ar-Riyad Saudi Arabia 4250000 65 Barcelona Spain 4200000 66 Berlin Germany 4200000 67 Sydney Australia 4200000 68 Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) Vietnam 4200000 69 Ahmadabad India 4150000 70 Miami USA 4000000 incl. Fort Lauderdale 71 Pusan (Busan) South Korea 3950000 72 El Djazaïr (Algiers, Algier) Algeria 3900000 73 Guadalajara Mexico 3900000 incl. Zapopan 74 Abidjan Côte d Ivoire 3800000 75 Medellín Colombia 3800000 76 Milano [Milan] Italy 3800000 77 Porto Alegre Brazil 3650000 78 Seattle USA 3650000 79 P’yongyang North Korea 3550000 80 Casablanca (Dar-el-Beida) Morocco 3500000 81 Chengdu China 3500000 82 Monterrey Mexico 3500000 83 Montréal Canada 3500000 84 Athínai [Athens] Greece 3450000 85 Melbourne Australia 3450000 86 Pune (Poona) India 3450000 87 Recife Brazil 3450000 88 Phoenix USA 3400000 89 Ankara Turkey 3350000 90 Kyyiv [Kiev, Kiew] Ukraine 3350000 91 Roma [Rome] Italy 3300000 92 Singapore Singapore 3250000 93 Cape Town (Kaapstad) South Africa 3200000 94 Jiddah Saudi Arabia 3150000 95 Salvador Brazil 3150000 96 Cali Colombia 3100000 97 Chittagong Bangladesh 3050000 98 Minneapolis USA 3050000 99 Cleveland USA 3000000 100 Fortaleza Brazil 3000000 Mine was #40 (Essen, Germany), although I had heard of the Ruhr; after that, it was #49 (Tianjin, China). [Edited by bibliophage on 09-08-2001 at 07:16 PM] ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/2 "2001-09-08T14:50:35Z")
Oh, how annoying is that? Mods, could one of you please fix the garbage characters? Thanks. And no joking about how you’ve never heard of Tōkyō, if you don’t mind. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/3 "2001-09-08T14:57:02Z")
49 Tianjin China 5350000 Below that I’ve heard of most of them, this the exception of some of the Chinese cities. Does Tianjin have an anglicized name I might have heard of? ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/4 "2001-09-08T14:58:24Z")
If I’m reading the name right (with all the funky characters), I must admit that #35 – Hyder, India is unfamiliar to me. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/5 "2001-09-08T15:07:59Z")
#22 Dhaka, Bangladesh ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/6 "2001-09-08T15:09:14Z")
Unless you’re counting the sub-cities, #46 Bangalore was the first one I’d never heard of. I know about bangalore torpedoes, but I had no idea they were named after a city. But if you count the sub-cities, I’m eliminated at #1. I didn’t know Kawasaki was a city; I thought it was just a brand name. Other names unfamiliar to me: Belo Horizonte, Shenyang, Ahmadabad, Porto Alegre, Salvador, and Chittagong. I knew all the rest of the major cities. But some of them I did not know by their native names: i.e. I know of Bombay and Cairo, but wouldn’t have recognized them by the names Mumbai and Al-Qahirah. I am also unfamiliar with many of the sub-city names. ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/7 "2001-09-08T15:10:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sir Rhosis \* > \*\*If I’m reading the name right (with all the funky characters), I must admit that #35 – Hyder, India is unfamiliar to me. > > Sir Rhosis \*\* I think that’s Hyderabad. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/8 "2001-09-08T15:13:19Z")
Still don’t know it, and like Danimal, if you count sub-cities, I’m out of the runnng on #3, and the Seoul sub-city of Songnam. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/9 "2001-09-08T15:17:49Z")
I never hear of many of these Chinese cities before now, unless they are known by other names. I point out also that No. 40, Essen, is an interloper in this list, as Essen is populated by 647,643 citizens, at least in 1981, so the number of citizens is overstated, by a factor of ten. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/10 "2001-09-08T15:39:00Z")
I’ve never heard of #38, Chongqing. BTW, I had no _idea_ Khartoum was that big – isn’t it in the middle of the Sahara? How do they support a population that size? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/11 "2001-09-08T15:55:44Z")
al-Khartûm is hardly “in the middle of the Sahara.” It’s where the White Nile and the Blue Nile flow together. You know how Egypt is the “gift of the Nile”? That’s true for Nubia too. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/12 "2001-09-08T15:57:52Z")
Good game, **matt\_mcl**! Mine was also #49 Tianjin (and also 57 Wuhan, 61 Shenyang, 81 Chengdu, 71 Busan and 100 Fortaleza). I suppose you’d expect plenty of “minor” towns in China would have lots of people living there, and the country was closed to us westerners for a long time, but all the same it gives you some perspective doesn’t it? **Fretful** , Khartoum is at the junction between the Blue Nile and White Nile. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/13 "2001-09-08T16:10:30Z")
He explains that he lists agglomerations under their largest city, so Essen is standing in for the entire Ruhr. ---
**Author:** ![headshok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@headshok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/headshok)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/14 "2001-09-08T16:22:55Z")
#49, Tianjin. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/15 "2001-09-08T16:28:46Z")
Yes, I figured they were probably getting their water from the Nile, but I’m still wondering how they produce enough _food_ for seven million people – I mean, there’s only so much land near the river. Good irrigation system, I suppose… ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/16 "2001-09-08T16:31:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine \* > \*\*I’ve never heard of #38, Chongqing. > \*\* You might know it as “Chunking,” which is how it is spelled in the Wade-Giles system. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/17 "2001-09-08T16:50:10Z")
#43 Lahore (incl. Cantonment) Pakistan I was surprised at the number of cities I recognized, but I suppose working for a manufacturer that contracts production all over the world has some advantages. ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/18 "2001-09-08T16:58:59Z")
#43 Lahore (incl. Cantonment) Pakistan ---
**Author:** ![Trucido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@Trucido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trucido)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/19 "2001-09-08T17:14:01Z")
#86 Pune, India, after that, #100, Fortaleza, Brazil. Then again, I mostly knew the Chinese cities because of my last history class. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397/20 "2001-09-08T18:46:00Z")
#49, Tianjin, too. But I’ve got to wonder about the list - for example they include the population of Baltimore to get the number for DC. I would never do that (it doesn’t even make sense to me to do that, especially since Baltimore has more people). So are some of the other inclusions equally as iffy? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-youve-never-heard-of/80397.md?page=2)