Humanities › Geography Largest Cities Throughout History Determining population prior to census-taking was no easy task Share Flipboard Email Print ilbusca / Getty Images Geography Population Basics Physical Geography Political Geography Country Information Key Figures & Milestones Maps Urban Geography By Matt Rosenberg Matt Rosenberg Geography Expert M.A., Geography, California State University - Northridge B.A., Geography, University of California - Davis Matt Rosenberg is an award-winning geographer and the author of "The Handy Geography Answer Book" and "The Geography Bee Complete Preparation Handbook." Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on November 04, 2019 In order to understand how civilizations have evolved over time, it's useful to look at population growth and decline in different geographic areas. Tertius Chandler's compilation of the population of cities throughout history, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census uses a wide variety of historical sources to locate approximate populations for the world's largest cities since 3100 BCE. It's a daunting task to try to calculate how many people lived in urban centers prior to recorded history. Even though the Romans were the first to conduct a census, requiring every Roman man to register every five years, other societies were not as diligent about tracking their populations. Widespread plagues, natural disasters with a large loss of life and wars that decimated societies (from both the aggressor and the conquered points of view) often provide unfortunate clues to historians for a given population's size. But with few written records, and very little uniformity among societies that may be hundreds of miles apart, trying to determine whether China's pre-modern era cities were more populous than India's, for instance, is no easy task. Counting Pre-Census Population Growth The challenge for Chandler and other historians is the lack of formal census-taking before the 18th century. His approach was to look at smaller pieces of data to try to create a clear picture of populations. This included examining travelers' estimates, data on the numbers of households within cities, the numbers of food wagons arriving in cities and the size of each city or state's military. He looked at church records and the loss of lives in disasters. Many of the figures Chandler presented can only be considered rough approximations of the urban population, but most include the city and surrounding suburban or urbanized area. What follows is a list of the largest city at each point in history since 3100 BCE. It lacks population data for many cities but does provide a list of the largest cities throughout time. By looking at the first and second lines of the table, we see that Memphis remained the largest city in the world from at least 3100 BCE to 2240 BCE when Akkad claimed the title. City Year Became No. 1 Population Memphis, Egypt 3100 BCE Well over 30,000 Akkad, Babylonia (Iraq) 2240 Lagash, Babylonia (Iraq) 2075 Ur, Babylonia (Iraq) 2030 BCE 65,000 Thebes, Egypt 1980 Babylon, Babylonia (Iraq) 1770 Avaris, Egypt 1670 Nineveh, Assyria (Iraq) 668 Alexandria, Egypt 320 Pataliputra, India 300 Xi'an, China 195 BCE 400,000 Rome 25 BCE 450,000 Constantinople 340 CE 400,000 Istanbul CE Baghdad 775 CE first over 1 million Hangzhou, China 1180 255,000 Beijing, China 1425- 1500 1.27 million London, United Kingdom 1825-1900 first over 5 million New York 1925-1950 first over 10 million Tokyo 1965-1975 first over 20 million Here are the top cities by population from the year 1900: Name Population London 6.48 million New York 4.24 million Paris 3.33 million Berlin 2.7 million Chicago 1.71 million Vienna 1.7 million Tokyo 1.5 million St. Petersburg, Russia 1.439 million Manchester, UK 1.435 million Philadelphia 1.42 million And here are the top 10 cities by population for the year 1950 Name Population New York 12.5 million London 8.9 million Tokyo 7 million Paris 5.9 million Shanghai 5.4 million Moscow 5.1 million Buenos Aires 5 million Chicago 4.9 million Ruhr, Germany 4.9 million Kolkata, India 4.8 million In the modern era, it's much easier to track things like birth, death and marriage certificates, especially in countries that conduct census surveys on a regular basis. But it's fascinating to consider how large cities grew and shrunk before there were means to measure them. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Rosenberg, Matt. "Largest Cities Throughout History." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/largest-cities-throughout-history-4068071. Rosenberg, Matt. (2023, April 5). Largest Cities Throughout History. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/largest-cities-throughout-history-4068071 Rosenberg, Matt. "Largest Cities Throughout History." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/largest-cities-throughout-history-4068071 (accessed June 1, 2023). copy citation By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies