HISTORICAL URBAN COMMUNITY SIZES

Estimated population numbers of historical cities over time. Some cities are estimated.

Contents

Neolithic settlements

Bronze Age

Iron Age

Middle Ages

Early Modern era

20th century

21st century

References

See also

External links

Neolithic settlements

City	7000 BC
Catalhuyuk	7,000 2,500
'Ain Ghazal	2,500Yuri E. Berezkin: http://www.arkeologi.uu.se/afr/projects/BOOK/berez.pdf
Jericho	2,000

Bronze Age

City	3100 BC	2600 BC	2000 BC	1600 BC	1200 BC
Uruk	40,000 George Modelski, ''World Cities: –3000 to 2000'', Washington DC: FAROS 2000, 2003. ISBN 2-00309-499-4. See also Evolutionary World Politics Homepage.	80,000
Ur			65,000 Tertius Chandler. ''Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census'' (1987), St. David's University Press (etext.org). ISBN 0-88946-207-0.
Lagash		40,000	30,000
Harappa		35,000 Encyclopædia Britannica. The Indus Civilization - Population.
Avaris/Pi-Ramses				100,000	160,000
Memphis	30,000 Matt T. Rosenberg, ''Largest Cities Through History''.		60,000	22,000	50,000
Shahr-i Sokhta	20,000
Mohenjo-daro		41,250	20,000
Babylon			40,000 (Kish)	60,000	50,000
Niniveh				23,000	33,000
Yinxu (Anyang)					120,000

Iron Age

City	1000 BC	900 BC	650 BC	430 BC	200 BC	AD 2	AD 100
Thebes	120,000
Memphis	100,000		65,000	100,000
Babylon	100,000		60,000	200,000
Niniveh			120,000
Athens				155,000
Alexandria					300,000 600,000		250,000
Rome					160,000	800,000	450,000 1,000,000
Haoqing / Chang'an / Xi'an	100,000 Modelski’s list of the world’s largest cities treats Thebes and Haoqing as the top cities with 100,000 inhabitants (p. 218), though the same list on the next page (p. 219) as well as Table 2 (c) place the population of Thebes at 120,000, while that for Haoqing as well as Memphis and Babylon at 100,000 (pp. 33-34).	125,000	33,000		400,000	246,000 [1]	81,000
Luoyang	100,000 Chandler listed Thebes, Haoqing, and Chengzhou (Luoyang) as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd largest cities (p. 460), though Luoyang is supposed to pass 100,000 in 1000 B.C. (p. 541).When the city first passed 100,000, suggested by Richard Forstall (pp. 541-542).		100,000	200,000			420,000
Linzi			100,000	200,000
Xiadu				320,000
Xianyang					300,000
Pataliputra				100,000	350,000		69,000
Anuradhapura				48,000	68,000		130,000
Peshawar							120,000
Seleucia					200,000		250,000
Antioch					120,000		150,000
Carthage					150,000		100,000

Middle Ages

City	500	775	900	1000	1250	1400	1500
Rome	100,000			50,000			50,000
Constantinople / Istanbul	400,000	225,000	300,000	300,000			200,000
Baghdad		700,000	600,000 900,000	125,000 1,200,000
Córdoba			200,000	450,000
Cairo				135,000			400,000
Venice				45,000 [1]	120,000 [2]	110,000 [1]	150,000 [2]
Milan					150,000 [2]	125,000 [1]	80,000 [2]
Genoa					80,000 [2]	100,000 [1]	80,000 [2]
Florence					110,000 [2]	45,000 [2]	60,000 [2]
Jiankang	500,000
Chang'an / Xi'an	400,000	1,000,000Haoqing, the capital of Western Zhou, was located 15 km SW of Chang'an, the capital of Sung and Tang dynasties as well as the present center of Xi'an. Han capital was located 5 km NW of the center of modern Xi'an. All these sites are now within the sub-provincial city of Xi'an.	800,000
Hangzhou					1,000,000	1,500,000	250,000
Kaifeng				432,000	1,000,000
Kyoto		200,000	200,000	300,000
Beijing							672,000 1,000,000
Vijayanagar							500,000
Tenochtitlan [14]							212,500
London				5,000-10,000			50,000-100,000 [2]
Paris						275,000 [1]	185,000

Early Modern era

City	1600	1700	1800
Ayutthaya	300,000	1,000,000
Istanbul	650,000	700,000	570,000
Paris	325,000	600,000	548,000
London	150,000	550,000	960,000
Madrid	180,000	600,000	540,000
Moscow	100,000	150,000	200,000
Rome	100,000	150,000 [1]	163,000
Venice [1]	180,000	145,000	160,000
Milan [1]	150,000	125,000	160,000
Berlin	12,000	70,000	172,122
Amsterdam	60,000	205,000	205,000
Beijing	706,000 1,000,000	650,000	1,100,000
Guangzhou			1,000,000
Naples		207,000 [1]	430,000
Edo		1,000,000Gordon, Andrew: "A Modern History of Japan from Tokugawa Times to the Present". Oxford University Press, 2003. p23. (As of 1721).	685,000
Kyoto		400,000+Sansom, George (1963). "A History of Japan: 1615-1867." Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p113. Note: These figures exclude military (samurai) population, which could account for a considerable portion of the population.	377,000
Osaka		350,000+	383,000

20th century

City	1900	1950	2000
Bangkok	300,000	1,200,000	9,320,000
London	6,506,954	8,196,978	8,250,000
Paris	3,750,000	6,150,000	9,700,000
New York City	4,200,000	12,463,000	17,361,797
Berlin	1,888,848	3,336,026	4,101,000
Vienna	1,769,137	1,616,125	1,550,000
Madrid	575,675	1,553,338	5,285,242
Chicago	1,698,575	4,906,000	8,300,000
Tokyo	1,497,000	7,000,000	28,724,000
Osaka			16,800,000
Saint Petersburg	1,439,400	2,691,000	4,200,000
Moscow	1,175,000	4,847,000	10,126,424
Buenos Aires	950,891	4,618,255	11,460,575
Istanbul	942,900	983,041	10,018,735
Mexico City	400,000		16,400,000
São Paulo			15,500,000
Los Angeles	102,479	3,500,000	11,500,000
Shanghai		5,406,000	16,738,000

21st century

:''See List of cities by population for current data.''

References

1. P.M. Hoenberg L.Hollen Lees : “The Making of Urban Europe 1000-1950” Harvard Univerity Press 1985
2. M. Ginatempo L. Sandri “L’Italia delle Città. Sec XIII XVI” Le Lettere 1990
3. P.M. Hoenberg L.Hollen Lees : “The Making of Urban Europe 1000-1950” Harvard Univerity Press 1985
4. M. Ginatempo L. Sandri “L’Italia delle Città. Sec XIII XVI” Le Lettere 1990
5. M. Ginatempo L. Sandri “L’Italia delle Città. Sec XIII XVI” Le Lettere 1990
6. P.M. Hoenberg L.Hollen Lees : “The Making of Urban Europe 1000-1950” Harvard Univerity Press 1985
7. M. Ginatempo L. Sandri “L’Italia delle Città. Sec XIII XVI” Le Lettere 1990
8. M. Ginatempo L. Sandri “L’Italia delle Città. Sec XIII XVI” Le Lettere 1990
9. P.M. Hoenberg L.Hollen Lees : “The Making of Urban Europe 1000-1950” Harvard Univerity Press 1985
10. M. Ginatempo L. Sandri “L’Italia delle Città. Sec XIII XVI” Le Lettere 1990
11. M. Ginatempo L. Sandri “L’Italia delle Città. Sec XIII XVI” Le Lettere 1990
12. M. Ginatempo L. Sandri “L’Italia delle Città. Sec XIII XVI” Le Lettere 1990
13. M. Ginatempo L. Sandri “L’Italia delle Città. Sec XIII XVI” Le Lettere 1990
14. Smith (2005), p. 411
15. P.M. Hoenberg L.Hollen Lees : “The Making of Urban Europe 1000-1950” Harvard Univerity Press 1985
16. P.M. Hoenberg L.Hollen Lees : “The Making of Urban Europe 1000-1950” Harvard Univerity Press 1985
17. P.M. Hoenberg L.Hollen Lees : “The Making of Urban Europe 1000-1950” Harvard Univerity Press 1985
18. P.M. Hoenberg L.Hollen Lees : “The Making of Urban Europe 1000-1950” Harvard Univerity Press 1985
19. P.M. Hoenberg L.Hollen Lees : “The Making of Urban Europe 1000-1950” Harvard Univerity Press 1985


★ Peter Connolly and Hazel Dodge, ''The Ancient City: Life in Classical Athens and Rome''. ISBN 0-19-521409-9

★ Smith, Michael E. (2005); "City Size in Late Post-Classic Mesoamerica", in ''Journal of Urban History'', Vol. 31 No. 4, May 2005, pp. 403-434.

See also

★ World population

★ Urbanism

★ List of largest cities throughout history

External links

★ Interactive Map: Urban Growth (BBC, covering 1955–2015)

★ Early Medieval and Byzantine Civilization: Constantine to Crusades

★ A Dynamic Map of the World Cities' Growth