More than half of the world’s population—4.2 billion people—live in cities. This number is expected to rise, with 68 percent of the global population estimated to live in urban areas by 2050.
Among the world’s megacities—defined as urban areas with more than 10 million inhabitants—Tokyo, Japan, is the largest, with 37 million citizens. It is followed by Delhi, India (29 million), and Shanghai, China (26 million). In the UK, after several decades of rural-to-urban migration, 83 percent of people live in urban environments—and London has become the first European megacity.
