Asia Cities by Population 2023

The most densely populated continent in the world, Asia boasts numerous cities with populations in excess of ten million. Not surprisingly, China features heavily in the top ten, with Shanghai and its 22.3 million residents topping the list, followed by Beijing (11.7 million), Tianjin (11 million), Guangzhou (11 million) and Shenzhen (10.3 million). Mumbai and Delhi in India also rank highly, with populations of 12.6 million and 10.9 million, respectively.

Among the cities with populations of more than five million, China is once again present – its population density is highlighted by the fact that many of these cities are not particularly well-known despite having populations larger than many countries! Examples include the cities of Hangzhou, with 6.2 million residents and Shantou with a population of 5.3 million. Other cities with populations of more than five million include Bangkok in Thailand (5.1 million) Tehran in Iran (7.1 million) and Japan's capital city of Tokyo (8.3 million).

However, even the behemoths of China and India have many smaller cities (although these would be considered mid-sized, or even large, for most European countries). Malegaon in India has a relatively small population of 435,362, while Bei'an in China has just 436,444 residents. Other quite small Asian cities include Dasmarinas in the Philippines (441,876), Iran's Hamadan (528,256) and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (603,492).