25 Most Densely Populated Cities In The World vs. Manhattan

We all know New York City to be packed with people, so it’d be interesting to take a look at the most densely populated cities in the world vs. Manhattan.

Manhattan is filled with people at every corner, especially in midtown. The trains during rush hour are so packed you can forget about personal space. It no longer exists. You’ve now become closer to the disheveled man next to you than you’ve ever been to another person in your life. Walking down the street is like that typical TV/movie scene where the camera focuses in on the main character’s sad face and then it pans out to show them moving at a glacial pace in the large crowd of people on the street as if they’re cattle. It’s almost funny how many people are on the street at any given time, like Times Square, for example. Of course, there are less consistently populated areas, like downtown, but the mass amounts of apartments prove otherwise.

New York City is one of the biggest cities in the world, and it has five boroughs, or sections, of it, with Manhattan being the most densely populated, which is why that’s what we’re using as our comparison. Big cities like this tend to be places people like to visit and enjoy in small doses rather than live, but I actually enjoy the fact that there are so many people around me all the time. Unless I’m in a bad mood, in which case even when the train car is empty except for one person I’m a little miffed, but I digress.

In order to create this list, we had to find some sources as starting points. We looked at Nations Online, Telegraph, and City/Mayors Statistics to find each city’s ranking on population density and averaged them from all sources. Since we want to compare them all to Manhattan, we found Manhattan’s currency population density, which, according to World Population Review, is 70,826 people per sqKm. The cities that have the closest population density to Manhattan are at the top of the list. It’d be interesting to see how many of the cities on this list come from the most densely populated countries in the world.

Read on to learn more about the most densely populated cities in the world vs. Manhattan.

25. Sao Paulo, Brazil

Population: 17,000,000

Land area: 1,968 sqKm

Population density: 9,000 people per sqKm

24. Hyderabad, India

Population: 5,300,000

Land area: 583 sqKm

Population density: 9,100 people per sqKm

23. Shenyang, China

Population: 4,200,000

Land area: 453 sqKm

Population density: 9,250 people per sqKm

22. Baghdad, Iraq

Population: 5,500,000

Land area: 596 sqKm

Population density: 9,250 people per sqKm

21. Cairo, Egypt

Population: 12,200,000

Land area: 1,295 sqKm

Population density: 9,400 people per sqKm

20. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Population: 4,900,000

Land area: 518 sqKm

Population density: 9,450 people per sqKm

19. Bangalore, India

Population: 5,400,000

Land area: 534 sqKm

Population density: 10,100 people per sqKm

18. Tianjin, China

Population: 4,750,000

Land area: 453 sqKm

Population density: 10,500 people per sqKm

17. Jakarta, Indonesia

Population: 14,250,000

Land area: 1,360 sqKm

Population density: 10,500 people per sqKm

16. Tehran, Iran

Population: 7,250,000

Land area: 686 sqKm

Population density: 10,550 people per sqKm

15. Manila, Philippines

Population: 14,750,000

Land area: 1,399 sqKm

Population density: 10,550 people per sqKm

14. Kinshasa, Congo

Population: 5,000,000

Land area: 469 sqKm

Population density: 10,650 people per sqKm

13. Delhi, India

Population: 14,300,000

Land area: 1,295 sqKm

Population density: 11,050 people per sqKm

12. Beijing, China

Population: 8,614,000

Land area: 748 sqKm

Population density: 11,500 people per sqKm

We’re halfway through our list of most densely populated cities in the world vs. Manhattan, and now, let’s see what’s next.

11. Lima, Peru

Population: 7,000,000

Land area: 596 sqKm

Population density: 11,750 people per sqKm

10. Shanghai, China

Population: 10,000,000

Land area: 746 sqKm

Population density: 13,400 people per sqKm

9. Bogota, Colombia

Population: 7,000,000

Land area: 518 sqKm

Population density: 13,500 people per sqKm

8. Chennai, India

Population: 5,950,000

Land area: 414 sqKm

Population density: 14,350 people per sqKm

7. Taipei, Taiwan

Population: 5,700,000

Land area: 376 sqKm

Population density: 15,200 people per sqKm

6. Seoul/Incheon, South Korea

Population: 17,500,000

Land area: 1,049 sqKm

Population density: 16,700 people per sqKm

5. Shenzhen, China

Population: 8,000,000

Land area: 466 sqKm

Population density: 17,150 people per sqKm

4. Lagos, Nigeria

Population: 13,400,000

Land area: 738 sqKm

Population density: 18,150 people per sqKm

3. Karachi, Pakistan

Population: 9,800,000

Land area: 518 sqKm

Population density: 18,150 people per sqKm

2. Kolkata, India

Population: 12,700,000

Land area: 531 sqKm

Population density: 23,900 people per sqKm

1. Mumbai, India

Population: 14,350,000

Land area: 484 sqKm

Population density: 29,650 people per sqKm

That concludes our list of the most densely populated cities in the world vs. Manhattan. Perhaps it gave you an idea of just how crowded different places around the world are compared to somewhere you may have already visited.