Delhi to become world’s most populous city by 2028 as Tokyo plateaus

As of 2018, Tokyo is still the world’s largest city with 37 million inhabitants, but it’s growth has plateaued and is projected to begin declining around 2020

Years of low fertility, emigration, political strife, economic contraction and natural disasters have contributed to population losses in some global cities, according to data released by the United Nations. Most of the cities with falling populations are located in Asia and eastern Europe, such as Japan, Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine, where overall population sizes have been either stagnating or in decline.

Crowd at India Gate in New Delhi. (Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

As of 2018, Tokyo is still the world’s largest city with 37 million inhabitants, but it’s growth has plateaued and is projected to begin declining around 2020, while Delhi continues the ascend to become the most populous city in the world in 2028.

In the Land of the Rising Sun population declines are widespread. Between 2030 and 2035, 63 urban areas, out of a total of 1,800 in the world, with a population of 300,000 inhabitants or more in 2018, are expected to shrink. Of which, 33, or more than half of them are in Japan. By the end of the century there could be 50 million fewer Japanese than there were at its peak.

Looking at approximately one generation’s time from 2000 to 2030, the population of three industrial cities in China’s Yichun, in the northeast province of Heilongjiang, Youngstown in Ohio, United States and Hamhung, in the Hamgyong province of North Korean are expected to fall in size significantly.