Jakarta's Population Boom: A New Way to Count People

Jakarta, Indonesia's bustling capital, has taken the top spot as the world's most populous city, according to a recent United Nations report. This change comes not just from a sudden population explosion, but from a new way of counting urban populations. The report, released on November 18, estimates Jakarta's population at around 42 million people. That's a lot! To put it in perspective, it's roughly the same as the entire population of Canada. Tokyo, which used to be number one, now sits at number three with 33 million people. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is in second place with 37 million. This change is pretty surprising. In the last report from 2018, Jakarta was way down at number 33 with just 11 million people, while Tokyo was at the top with 37 million. So, what changed? The big difference is in how the report counts people. Before, the UN used official national statistics, which could vary a lot from country to country. This time, they used a consistent method to categorize cities, towns, and rural areas. For Jakarta, this new method counted about 30 million more people than before. The old method excluded densely populated communities connected to the city center. So, it seems like Jakarta has always been this big; we just didn't count everyone before. Using this new method, researchers found that Tokyo was actually the most populous city until around 2010. After that, Jakarta took the lead. Tokyo, like the rest of Japan, has been seeing a decline in population in recent years. This report makes us think about how we count populations and what we consider a city. It also raises questions about urban planning and the challenges that come with rapid population growth.