Top 10 Largest Cities (100 AD - 2025)
A dynamic data visualization tracking the rise and fall of global metropolises over two millennia.
Regions
Europe
Asia
Middle East
Africa
North America
South America
100
The Pax Romana & Han Dynasty Peak: Rome is generally agreed to be the first city to hit 1M.
Tip: use two fingers to pan and zoom the map.
Top 10 Largest Cities
1Rome
1,000,0002Luoyang
420,0003Seleucia
250,0004Alexandria
250,0005Antioch
150,0006Anuradhapura
130,0007Peshawar
120,0008Carthage
100,0009Suzhou
95,00010Smyrna
90,000About the Data
This visualization uses historical population estimates to reconstruct the urban hierarchy of the past. Populations are linearly interpolated between specific anchor years to create a continuous timeline.
- 100 AD - 1900 AD: Data sourced from Tertius Chandler's "Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth".
- 1950 - 2025: Data sourced from UN World Urbanization Prospects.
- Ghost Effect: (Coming Soon) Visualizing cities that drop out of the top 10 to show their decline rather than disappearance.