<img src="https://ourworldindata.org/cdn-cgi/imagedelivery/qLq-8BTgXU8yG0N6HnOy8g/ec764b0d-b95f-4046-528c-fa360b3b7100/w=386″ alt=”Esteban Ortiz-Ospina” loading=”lazy”>
Esteban Ortiz-OspinaHannah Ritchie
Many cities across East Asia and Latin America have grown quickly over the last few decades. Since 1950, São Paulo’s population has grown sixfold. Shanghai’s nearly tenfold.
This rapid growth is now ending. São Paulo is near its population peak, and Shanghai is projected to peak around 2050.
The fastest-growing megacities are now emerging elsewhere. In the chart, you can see various examples: Karachi in South Asia, and Dar es Salaam, Addis Ababa, and Luanda in Africa.
Luanda, the capital of Angola, is an interesting case. It gets much less attention than well-established megacities, but as the chart shows, it’s on track to overtake São Paulo in about 20 years and Shanghai in about 60.
In this dataset from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, only 24 of today’s 100 largest cities are projected to still be growing by 2100; of those, 12 are in Africa, and 5 are in South Asia.
Of course, these rely on projections — often many decades ahead — and those come with a lot of uncertainty. Nonetheless, they provide a useful perspective on what the future of cities across the world might look like.
Explore the full data for other cities in our interactive chart
