Brilliant Maps

Making Sense Of The World, One Map At A Time

  • BOOK!
  • Newsletter
  • Board Games
  • Posters
  • Scratch Maps

Population of the Metro Tokyo Area Compared To US Cities

September 9, 2015 5 Comments

Population of the Metro Tokyo Area Compared To US Cities

Map created by Max Galka via Metrocosm

According to the UN, Tokyo is the world’s most populous metropolitan area with an estimated 37.8 million people in 2014. The next closest is the Seoul National Capital Area with a population of 25.6 million people or over 10 million fewer than Tokyo!

So how does this compare to US cities?

The map does a good job of demonstrating how many US cities you’d need to equal one Tokyo. Before continuing it should be noted that the map is comparing apples to oranges. It’s comparing the Greater Tokyo Metro Area to US cities boundaries (not metro areas!).

Still, its crazy to think that the same number of people live in Greater Tokyo as live within the city boundaries of the following US cities ranked by population:

  • New York – 8,491,079
  • Los Angeles – 3,928,864
  • Chicago – 2,695,598
  • Houston – 2,099,451
  • Philadelphia – 1,560,297
  • Phoenix – 1,445,632
  • San Antonio – 1,436,697
  • San Diego – 1,381,069
  • Dallas – 1,197,816
  • San Jose – 1,015,785
  • Austin – 912,791
  • San Francisco – 852,469
  • Indianapolis – 820,445
  • Charlotte – 809,958
  • Washington D.C. – 658,893
  • Boston – 655,884
  • Memphis – 646,889
  • Baltimore – 620,961
  • Denver – 600,158
  • Las Vegas – 583,756
  • Sacramento – 466,488
  • Kansas City (Missouri) – 459,787
  • Atlanta – 447,841
  • Miami – 399,457
  • Cleveland – 396,815
  • Honolulu – 390,738
  • New Orleans – 384,320
  • Durham – 245,550
  • Orlando – 238,300
  • Salt Lake City – 186,440
  • Providence – 178,042
  • New Haven – 130,741
  • Boulder – 97,385

And altogether they total only 36,436,396 people or still 1.4 million fewer than Tokyo. To put it another way, Tokyo has about the same population as California, in an area the size of LA county.

Tokyo vs California population

Map created by Max Galka

To learn more about Tokyo and urbanization in general have a look at the following books:

  • Tokyo City Atlas: A Bilingual Guide
  • East Asia Modern: Shaping the Contemporary City
  • Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier

Surprised by this map? Then share it with a friend:

Filed Under: Japan Tagged With: comparison, population

Comments

  1. Andrew says

    January 9, 2017 at 4:25 pm

    Why do you compare the population of the Tokyo *metropolitan* area with the population of american cities, and not their metropolitan areas.

    New York and Los Angeles alone have metropolitan areas that are (combined) almost as large as the tokyo metropolitan area. NY is 20 million, LA is 13 million, which is 33 million in those two metropolitan areas alone.

    Reply
    • The says

      March 9, 2017 at 3:42 am

      It wouldn’t be click-bait fabulous.

      Reply
  2. 대한민국 says

    November 12, 2017 at 8:14 am

    Seoul is about 25-36 Million. What counts Seoul is technically all of Kyung-Ki-Do Province.

    Reply
  3. Jason Taraval says

    December 21, 2018 at 2:24 am

    The borders in the Tokyo area don’t even match the real map… What ward of Tokyo does “Los Angeles” correspond to?

    Reply
  4. Richard T Peterson says

    May 29, 2021 at 5:17 pm

    Where’s Milwaukee on the list?

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


World Atlas · Settlers of Catan · Risk · Game of Thrones · Coloring Books · Globes
Monopoly · Star Wars · Game of Life · Pandemic · Ticket To Ride · Drinks Cabinets
Copyright © 2023 · Privacy Policy · Fair Use, Attribution & Copyright · Contact Us
Follow Us: E-mail · Twitter · Facebook · Pinterest · Flipboard