2026-09-26 · people
One in eight people live in a megacity
Cities over ten million are few — but enormous.
In 2026, one in eight people — 12.5% of humanity, roughly a billion of us — live in a megacity of ten million or more. These urban giants are few on the map but enormous in reach, concentrating housing, transit, and jobs at a scale that shapes economies and emissions. The other seven in eight live in smaller cities, towns, and the countryside.
1 cell = 8.2 million people (0.1% of world population) · 1,000 cells
Context
A megacity is an urban agglomeration of ten million or more inhabitants — the United Nations' threshold. The figures come from the 2025 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects, the UN dataset tracking urban and rural populations for every country from 1950 to 2050.
Cities this size are rare: most urban agglomerations worldwide never approach the ten-million mark. But those that do concentrate populations on the scale of nations, which is why megacity growth looms large in debates over housing, infrastructure, and climate.
The UN's projections run to 2050, making the megacity share a key yardstick for where housing demand, transport investment, and climate pressures will intensify next.
UN megacity population threshold 10M+.
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