North America Cities by Population 2026

North America Cities Overview

Mexico City tops the list of the most highly populated cities that are located on the continent of North America with a current estimated total population of over 8.9 million people.

Most Populous Cities in the United States

However, cities located in the United States have taken five of the remaining top ten rankings in terms of most populous cities. New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago are easily the largest cities in the United States and, of these three, New York City is by far the largest, with approximately 8.6 million residents (Los Angeles and Chicago have populations of 3.9 and 2,716,450 million, respectively). Phoenix, Arizona and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania also rank highly with respective and recent population estimates of 1,626,078 and 1,580,863.

Most Populous Canadian Cities

The Canadian cities of Toronto and Montreal , also ranks in the top ten most populous North American cities with 2,731,571 residents in Toronto and 1,704,694 residents living in Montreal.

Top Ten Most Populous Non-US

Rounding out the top ten list are the cities of Havana, Cuba and Ecatepec de Morelos, Mexico - which are the only other non-US cities in the top ten.

Growing Cities

A large number of major US cities have populations of between one and two million, and are located throughout the states. These include the Californian city of San Diego (1.3 million) and the southern city of Dallas, Texas (1.3 million). A number of Mexican cities also fit into this range, such as Guadalajara (1.6 million) and Tijuana (1.3 million).

Smaller Cities

Many other culturally or historically significant US cities have relatively small populations. Louisiana’s second-largest city of Baton Rouge has a population of 228,590; Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the oldest cities in the US and now has a population of 132,609, while Berkeley in California, famous for its university and social activism, has a population of just 120,972. Among the smaller Canadian cities are Burlington, Ontario (164,415), Kelowna, British Columbia (125,109) and Cambridge, Ontario (120,372).