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The largest cities at varying points in historical time
Here is the list, courtesy of kottke.org. Fez as the largest world city in 1170 was a surprise to me. At 300 A.D. the list leaves the Middle East, breaking into Pataliputra (Patna), India. I am not sure what kind of data they are using for the New World at earlier points in time.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on June 5, 2006 at 02:18 PM in Data Source, History | Permalink
Comments
Actually, that's 300 B.C.E., not 300 A.D.
Posted by: anon at Jun 5, 2006 3:01:03 PM
It would seem that there is a problem with the avoidance of the Western
Hemisphere until recently. Thus, according to figures I have seen,
Tenochtitlan (aka Mexico City) was at about 300,000 when Cortez arrived,
which would mean that it was probably about #4 in 1500, if these
numbers are right. But it is not on there at all.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Jun 5, 2006 5:11:18 PM
Pataliputra (Patna) in Indian history is known to hold one of the first university of that time and was very well known for its education .
Posted by: Aakash at Jun 5, 2006 8:06:51 PM
here is the wikipedia entry about Nalanda University in that time,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda
"The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang recorded that Nalanda was home to students from various countries at its zenith"
Posted by: Aakash Chauhan at Jun 5, 2006 8:13:36 PM
I think Larry's the guy from Nigeria with zero feedback who just bought my Sony camera on ebay. . .
Posted by: Matthew Cromer at Jun 5, 2006 10:15:01 PM
Tokyo as the world's most populous city presents an interesting example of measuring the population of a "city." Tokyo-to 1 of Japan's 47 prefectures (think US states), and has a population of about 12.5 million. The "city" of Tokyo is 23 ku (normally translated as "wards"), plus the remainder of Tokyo-to that isn't incorporated., which subtracts roughly 4 million people. Thus, the "city" of Tokyo has a population in the 8 million plus range. But the entire surrounding region is really focused around Tokyo; Yokohama is a city of 3 million people and a little ways away from Tokyo, but its daytime population is apparently about 88% of its nighttime population. So, how far out do you draw the line, if you're going beyond the "city"? 12 million, 20 million, 23 million, 30 million?
Posted by: Tom at Jun 5, 2006 11:46:57 PM
Tom,
Clearly the unit is solidly built up metro area, although
this does get murky sometimes. It is solidly built up
between Tokyo and Yokohama.
I was told personally by the Housing Minister of Tokyo
that the actual population of extended metro Tokyo is
closer to 40 million.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Jun 5, 2006 11:56:00 PM
The problem with defining what a "city" is is also apparent in the New York City figure for 1950 at 12M ("first city over 10M" or something along those lines). On the other hand, the US Census lists NYC's population at the time at around 8M (http://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0027/tab18.txt) ("Eight million stories in the Naked City", as the tagline goes). Which to trust?
Wikipedia's entry on the NYC metro area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_metropolitan_area) lists the population at around 19M. The Japanese government lists the Tokyo metro area at around 12.5M (http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/PROFILE/overview03.htm), which is far different from the 20M+ 1975 figure listed in the about.com page. Someone's definitions are screwy, and not consistently applied.
Posted by: Cheng-Jih Chen at Jun 6, 2006 11:36:47 AM
Within the US one can see the issue clearly. There are three
different definitions that one can use: the city itself, the
metropolitan statistical area (MSA), and the consolidated
metropolitan statistical area (CMSA). Thus, there is the
city of Washington, only about 600,000. There is the
Washington MSA, which includes million plus Fairfax County
and nearly a million each Montgomery County and Prince
George's County, among other jurisdictions. Then there is
the Washington-Baltimore CMSA, not sure of its current
population, although the last time I checked, it was number
4 in the rankings of these.
There can be bizarre variations. Washington, Boston, and
San Francisco cities are all quite small really, but their
CMSAs are mid-top ten. Because of friendly-to-cities
annexation laws, three Texas cities are in the top ten on
the pure cities list (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio), but
they are much further down when one gets to the CMSA list.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Jun 6, 2006 5:11:00 PM
Combining DC and Baltimore seems like a bit of a stretch. They are two distinctly different metropolitan areas as far as I'm concerned. If you're willing to stretch that far, then I-95 from DC to Boston might as well be the same metro area.
Of course if the pop keeps growing, they really will be eventually.
Posted by: BillWallace at Jun 6, 2006 9:27:24 PM
I'm a little surprised Mexico never appears on the list - I remember reading in the early '80s that it was the largest in the world, having passed Tokyo. I also thought that Shanghai (or whatever we're calling it these days) was also in contention for largest.
Posted by: Anthony at Jun 6, 2006 9:30:45 PM
Mexico City is currently #2 on most lists, depending
on definition of metro area, behind Tokyo. However,
recent reports have Mumbai (Bombay) moving up fast,
possibly past Mexico City in the reasonably near future.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Jun 7, 2006 10:31:16 AM
BTW, it is not just Mexico City that is ignored, but
Sao Paolo, Brazil is either 3 or 4, depending if Mumbai
is really ahead of it or not, ahead of New York, and
Buenos Aires has been on the edge of the top ten for
some time.
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