[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"question:13:en-US":3},{"metadata":4,"sys":15,"fields":35},{"tags":5,"concepts":14},[6,11],{"sys":7},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":10},"Link","Tag","global",{"sys":12},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":13},"sustainableCities",[],{"space":16,"id":20,"type":21,"createdAt":22,"updatedAt":23,"environment":24,"publishedVersion":28,"revision":29,"contentType":30,"locale":34},{"sys":17},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"Space","ghhpjogyw4x7","ede9b4dddc8b13eb0af4e724e2295cf6","Entry","2021-11-11T07:04:20.420Z","2025-12-08T09:34:59.889Z",{"sys":25},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},"master","Environment",173,44,{"sys":31},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":33},"ContentType","question","en-US",{"globalId":36,"answers":37,"answersAsImages":58,"wrongPercentage":94,"name":95,"questionText":96,"statistics":97,"veryWrongStatistics":137,"correctSentence":177,"youWereWrong":178,"youWereRight":179,"dataSourceShortText":180,"dataSourceLinkLongText":181,"extendedAnswerText":182,"headingVeryWrong":183,"youWereVeryWrong":178,"headingWrong":183},"13",[38,60,77],{"metadata":39,"sys":42,"fields":55},{"tags":40,"concepts":41},[],[],{"space":43,"id":45,"type":21,"createdAt":46,"updatedAt":47,"environment":48,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":52,"locale":34},{"sys":44},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"d32c8071c19dbfa20d1f9a4e5a79036b","2021-11-11T06:50:37.114Z","2024-09-16T12:51:18.897Z",{"sys":49},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},42,37,{"sys":53},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},"answer",{"globalId":56,"correctAnswer":57,"isVeryWrong":58,"answerText":59},"13-a1",true,false,"Around 8%",{"metadata":61,"sys":64,"fields":74},{"tags":62,"concepts":63},[],[],{"space":65,"id":67,"type":21,"createdAt":68,"updatedAt":69,"environment":70,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":72,"locale":34},{"sys":66},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"9177c40f81d47255b21e41ae9ba46ff3","2021-11-11T06:50:38.687Z","2024-09-16T12:51:18.933Z",{"sys":71},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},{"sys":73},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},{"globalId":75,"correctAnswer":58,"isVeryWrong":58,"answerText":76},"13-a2","Around 28%",{"metadata":78,"sys":81,"fields":91},{"tags":79,"concepts":80},[],[],{"space":82,"id":84,"type":21,"createdAt":85,"updatedAt":86,"environment":87,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":89,"locale":34},{"sys":83},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"9ac40e062282da87910658e02c3889d0","2021-11-11T06:50:40.189Z","2024-09-16T12:51:18.974Z",{"sys":88},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},{"sys":90},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},{"globalId":92,"correctAnswer":58,"isVeryWrong":57,"answerText":93},"13-a3","Around 48%",77,"What share of the world’s population lives in mega","What share of the world’s population lives in megacities (cities with at least 10 million people)?",[98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,120,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136],"uk 0.7322","usa 0.6972","arg 0.84","aus 0.7683","bel 0.7944","bra 0.849","can 0.7033","chn 0.7053","fra 0.7771","deu 0.6577","hun 0.776","idn 0.8942","ita 0.7331","jpn 0.55515","mex 0.805","pol 0.6387","rus 0.7593","sau 0.8683","sgp 0.7892","kor 0.7565","esp 0.7551","swe 0.68535","tur 0.8202","mys 0.7834","egy 0.8383","are 0.8763","col 0.864","rou 0.6766","per 0.8284","jor 0.8507","mar 0.80635","dnk 0.7","fin 0.83","nor 0.71","zaf 0.76","ind 0.74","pak 0.73","nga 0.74","phl 0.76",[138,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146,147,148,149,150,151,152,153,154,155,156,157,158,159,160,161,162,163,164,165,166,167,168,169,170,171,172,173,174,175,176],"uk 0.2190","usa 0.2260","arg 0.3560","aus 0.2488","bel 0.1996","bra 0.3950","can 0.1828","chn 0.1887","fra 0.2799","deu 0.1965","hun 0.2560","idn 0.4631","ita 0.1664","jpn 0.1564","mex 0.39","pol 0.1277","rus 0.3568","sau 0.3613","sgp 0.2306","kor 0.2176","esp 0.3144","swe 0.1709","tur 0.3347","mys 0.3618","egy 0.3373","are 0.3094","col 0.3560","rou 0.1876","per 0.3095","jor 0.3128","mar 0.4023","dnk 0.14","fin 0.25","nor 0.15","zaf 0.34","ind 0.38","pak 0.50","nga 0.35","phl 0.41","Around 8% of the world’s population live in megacities.","Most people massively overestimate how many people live in huge cities. The big cities are large but very few. The media and political debates give them lots of attention. In reality, far more people live in smaller cities.","Most people massively overestimate how many people live in huge cities. They don’t realize that more people live in smaller cities, as a few big cities steal most of the media attention.","Source: UN - The World’s Cities 2018","According to the UN[1] in 2025, there were 33 cities with more than 10 million inhabitants, representing 7.6% of the world's population of8 billion. In this question we use 8% as the correct answer to make sure we are not understating the number, as so many believe it is much higher. The UN estimate could potentially be a bit too low, as there is no international standard for defining city boundaries when counting citizens. The UN report mixes methods used by different countries. If the more generous methods that include sparsely populated outskirts were used everywhere, then a few more cities would maybe qualify as megacities.\nDespite that legitimate concern, most cities are not even close to 10 million people, so even adding a couple of more million extra people to most cities wouldn’t make a big difference to the number of megacities.\nHowever, we chose to put the correct answer as 8% to try to take into account any data concerns about underestimation of city size. Even if the number of megacities and their population sizes are increasing, it will probably not reach 8% for many years. The UN[1] projects that the number of megacities will grow from 33 to 37 by 2050, but the people living in them will still only make up 7.9% of the global population. Of all urban dwellers then, an even larger share will live in cities that are not megacities.\n\n[1]  [World Urbanizaion Prospects 2025](https:\u002F\u002Fpopulation.un.org\u002Fwup\u002Fassets\u002FPublications\u002Fundesa_pd_2025_wup2025_summary_of_results_final.pdf)  \n[2]  [UN - The World’s Cities in 2018](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.un.org\u002Fen\u002Fdevelopment\u002Fdesa\u002Fpopulation\u002Fpublications\u002Fpdf\u002Furbanization\u002Fthe_worlds_cities_in_2018_data_booklet.pdf)  ","It doesn’t matter what country you live in, the media probably pays much more attention to the people living in the capital and other large cities, compared to the rest of the population. Intuitively the reason is that more people live in a few big cities, but if you do the math, in many countries, there are actually more people living in medium-sized cities, and those are often growing just as fast as the few big cities. More than half the world’s population live in cities and that share keeps increasing. But there are only 33 cities with more than 10 million inhabitants in the world today. Almost all city dwellers live in much smaller cities.\n\n### Why is it a problem that people are wrong about this?\nIn many ways, it’s easier to create a sustainable lifestyle in a city, compared to remote rural areas, where scalable solutions for many citizens are difficult to create. Cities often have better education, healthcare, public transport, sewage, more effective energy use, etc. But the discussion about future urbanization tends to focus too much on the megacities, probably because they seem so futuristic. But their needs are not typical for most cities. Most cities are smaller, with access to nature close by. They have more to learn from similar sized cities in other parts of the world. They need regular sized waste management and transport systems.\n\n### Why are people wrong about this?\nLooking at the result from this question we can see how the exaggerated attention on megacities has made lots of people believe that roughly a third of humanity live in them.\n\n### Can I trust this fact?\nYes, but you should know what is being measured and how. According to the UN in 2025, there were 33 cities with more than 10 million inhabitants. That is 7.6% of the world's population of 8 billion. But in this question we use 8% as the correct answer to make sure we are not understating the number, as so many believe it is much higher. The UN estimate could potentially be a bit too low, as there is no international standard for defining city boundaries when counting citizens. The UN report mixes methods used by different countries. If the more generous methods that include sparsely populated outskirts were used everywhere, then a few more cities would maybe qualify as megacities. Despite that legitimate concern, most cities are not even close to 10 million people, so even adding a couple of more million extra people to most cities wouldn’t make a big difference to the number of megacities.\nHowever, we chose to put the correct answer as 8% to try to take into account any data concerns about underestimation of city size. \n\nEven if the number of megacities and their population sizes are increasing, it will probably not reach 8% for many years. The UN projects that the number of megacities will grow from 34 to 37 by 2050, but the people living in them will still only make up 7.9% of the global population. Of all urban dwellers then, an even larger share will live in cities that are not megacities.\n\n### Discover more\nTo understand the reality in other countries, most regular media images don't help much. They often show unusual events and famous or suffering people. Therefore, Gapminder has collected the world's largest free photo database that lets you see how people really live across the world. Visit: [Dollar Street](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gapminder.org\u002Fdollar-street).\n\nRicher countries generally have a larger number of people living in cities. This bubble-chart shows the increasing [urbanization since 1960 in all countries](http:\u002F\u002Fwww.gapm.io\u002Fturb), compared to average income of the country. [In this graph](https:\u002F\u002Fgapm.io\u002Fvpc), you can also see the proportion of people living in megacities by country since 1950. ","The big city steals the show... again"]