# What's The Largest World City You've Never Heard Of? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 3, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131 "2010-03-03T15:32:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**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:** [March 5, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/81 "2010-03-05T07:50:15Z")
Another one for Wuhan. Ye gods, a city bigger than my entire province and I’ve never heard of it (or if I have it was only the most fleeting of references). After that, the next I’ve never heard of is Surat, India. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/82 "2010-03-05T07:58:57Z")
#14, Wuhan, like everyone else. A lot of the Chinese ones fucked me up, actually; if you toss them out, I went all the way to #48, Abidjan, and the only other one I didn’t know was #52, Durban. ---
**Author:** ![ajb867](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@ajb867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ajb867)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/83 "2010-03-05T09:06:27Z")
I didn’t even make it to 3… Mumbai??? MUMBAI??? MOOOOOOOOO WHYYYYYY?☹ ---
**Author:** ![Waterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Waterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waterman)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/84 "2010-03-05T09:33:47Z")
I am confused as to the definition of “city proper”. For example, where is Paris on this list, which has a reputed population of (aire urbaine or metropolitan area) of 11,769,433 (January 2006) and is one of the most populated metropolitan areas in Europe and by most listings has a greater population than London? ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/85 "2010-03-05T14:29:32Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > #14, Wuhan. > > My mother was born in Pune. Another Wuhan, here, though without the Pune-born mother. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/86 "2010-03-06T13:39:36Z")
Yeah, Wuhan. Surprising how unknown it is! ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/87 "2010-03-06T13:48:43Z")
Another _Wuhan_, soon to be a popular trivia quiz answer. ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/88 "2010-03-06T14:12:29Z")
2 Mumbai. Surprising to see how few well known cities are on the list, really. I would have started rattling off capitals of major countries and the like. ---
**Author:** ![Architectonic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/74df32/32.png) [@Architectonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Architectonic)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/89 "2010-03-07T04:13:28Z")
Wuhan. So what, China has lots of large cities. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/90 "2010-03-07T04:34:31Z")
São Paulo. Guess I didn’t need to look too far down that list. I guess I should add: I only knew Karachi because there’s a map in Counter-Strike called de\_Karachi. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/91 "2010-03-07T06:09:01Z")
> [@Gustav](#): > > 2 Mumbai. > > Surprising to see how few well known cities are on the list, really. I would have started rattling off capitals of major countries and the like. I bet you’ve heard of Bombay, though. 😉 Seriously, I think the fact a lot of these cities have changed their names is what’s leading to confusion, rather than having never heard of the city at all. ---
**Author:** ![torie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@torie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torie)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/92 "2010-03-07T06:12:35Z")
Wuhan. I have also never heard of Kinshasa. All the other cities I knew. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/93 "2010-03-07T07:31:53Z")
Surat. Or at least no conscious memory of it. This thread has inspired to me to at least have name recognition of all the cities in the world with at least a million people. Amazing that there are places bigger than Dallas in China or India or Indonesia that I’ve never even heard of, and I stare at maps a lot more than the average American. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/94 "2010-03-07T09:27:03Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > #14, Wuhan. Wuhan for me too. ---
**Author:** ![chromaticity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/95 "2010-03-07T17:52:34Z")
Having a Chinese SO, and being Indian, I knew most of the places 🙂 Speaking of Wuhan. Here is a video of an attractive Wuhan speaker. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/djBLYQhKr3M/hqdefault.jpg "Cool Chinese (Wuhanhua) Rap Video - 信了你的邪 (武汉话)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djBLYQhKr3M) ---
**Author:** ![Visual\_Purple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5daacb/32.png) [@Visual\_Purple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Visual_Purple)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/96 "2010-03-07T18:14:16Z")
Surat, although its older name looked vaguely familiar. I think Wuhan may be a very forgettable name. I started to think that I didn’t recognize it. Then I realized that I’d been there. My spell checker knows Wuhan but not Surat. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/97 "2010-03-07T18:28:05Z")
Wuhan for me, too. > [@Haunted\_Pasta](#): > > Karachi is #3 in the world? Wow, I had no idea. It depends on how you count. If you step back and look at the entire entity, nothing even comes _close_ to Tokyo, but it’s #11 on the OP’s list. ---
**Author:** ![Delayed\_Reflex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/delayed_reflex/32/3172_2.png) [@Delayed\_Reflex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delayed_Reflex)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/98 "2010-03-07T19:26:56Z")
Also Wuhan for me - I didn’t know most of the Chinese ones really, though I was familiar with all of the Indian ones, having visited there for a month. One that surprised me was #17, Kinshasa - I had never heard of it before, and I would never have expected the Republic of Congo to have one of the most populous cities in the world - but then according to that table it only has a population density of 787/sq km (I see that it is a “city-province”). Anyone have any idea how that population is concentrated? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/99 "2010-03-07T23:23:45Z")
Wuhan as well as a number of other Chinese cities. What is most notable is that Cairo is the densest city of all of them. considering the skyline of the city the population must be living in shoe boxes. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131/100 "2010-03-08T01:09:44Z")
Wuhan for me as well. I’m surprised by the people who haven’t heard of Kinshasa, to be honest, if only because there are two Congos, and they are often referred to as “Congo (Kinshasa)” or “Congo (Brazzaville)” for clarification. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-world-city-youve-never-heard-of/531131.md?page=6)