List of largest cities throughout history

List of the most populous human settlements over time

The following table lists the most populous human settlements by estimated population at specified points in history according to three sources: Ian Morris, George Modelski and Tertius Chandler. City names are in bold where all three sources agree. It shows the evolution of the largest settlement from proto-city to city to urban area to metropolitan area.

References

References

1. "The World's Cities in 2018".
2. (2025). "World Urbanization Prospects 2025". United Nations.
3. Rosenberg, Matt. (November 4, 2019). "Largest Cities Throughout History".
4. Morris, Ian. (October 2010). "Social Development". Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
5. Modelski, George. (12 January 2008). "World Cities: -3000 to 2000". Faros2000.
6. Chandler, Tertius. (4 November 2019). "Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census". Edwin Mellen Press.
7. The date that the population of Beidha, Basta and Çatalhöyük is estimated to be 1,000 is given as 7500 BCE in Morris's published text (p. 632).
8. Suggested to be the largest cities in Modelski's text, but not given constantly prior to 3700 BCE (p. 3, p. 17, and p. 20). No entry is suggested for the [[Tell Halaf. Halafian]] and [[Ubaid period. Ubaid]] periods.
9. A [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] settlement located ca. 25 km north of [[Petra]].
10. The rough year that Çatalhöyük was supposed to be the largest is not given in Modelski's text which cites [[Ian Hodder]]'s report (p. 3 and p. 17). The year 6500 BCE is based on the recent report by Hodder (''Inhabiting Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 1995–99 Seasons (Çatalhöyük Research Project)'', Cambridge, UK: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2005.) where less inhabitants (1,500 to 2,000) are suggested by Craig Cessford (pp. 323–326).
11. The date that the population of Çatalhöyük is estimated to be 3,000 is given as 6500 BCE in Morris's published text (p. 632).
12. Suggested to be housing up to 10,000 people in Modelski's text (pp. 24–25), but only Eridu is listed as the largest city in Table 2 (a) (p. 22). The estimate is based on the author's personal communication with Mikhail Videiko, Institute of Archaeology, Kiev, October 2002 (p. 75). The previous estimates by S. I. Kruts for Maydanets and Talianki are 8,000 (1,575 housed within 270 ha) and 14,000 (2,700 houses within 450 ha), respectively (Pitskhelauri, K. N., and Chernykh, E. N. Eds., ''Kavkaz v sisteme paleometallicheskikh kultur Evrazii'', Metsniereba, Tbilisi, 1989, pp. 146–156.).
13. Suggested to be more than 45,000 in Morris's published text (p. 632).
14. According to Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 218), Nippur shares the top with Lagash with 60,000 inhabitants in 2500 BCE, though Table 2 (b) suggests that the population of Nippur is 20,000, the value of which is even lower than those estimated for Mari (50,000); Uruk and Umma (40,000); Memphis, [[Ebla]], [[Urkesh]], and [[Shuruppak]] (30,000) (p. 28).
15. Girsu (Telloh), the later capital of the state of Lagash, was situated 25 km NW of Lagash (Tell al Hiba), though both sites are frequently referred as Lagash.
16. According to Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 218), Girsu shares the top with Mari with 50,000 inhabitants, though Table 2 (b) suggests that the population of Girsu as well as Umma and Mohenjo-daro is 40,000 (p. 28).
17. According to Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 218), the population of Girsu for 2300 BCE is estimated as 50,000, which is less than that appears in Table 2 (b) and is the same value with that estimated for Mari (p. 28).
18. Location uncertain. Maybe west of [[Sippar]].
19. Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 218) excludes Girsu for 2000 BCE, though Table 2 (b) lists Girsu with 40,000 inhabitants (p. 28), sharing the top with Isin and Larsa.
20. The palace of Pi-Ramses (Qantir) was founded 2 km NE of Avaris (or Hawaret, Tell el-Dab'a), the residential area of which overlaps.
21. When the city first passed 100,000, suggested by Richard Forstall (pp. 541–542).
22. According to Chandler's list of the largest cities (pp. 523–527), Thebes was the largest for 1400–668 BCE, but Memphis was also supposed to be somewhat larger during 1205–1188 (p. 94, p. 460).
23. Modelski's list of the world's largest cities treats Thebes and Haojing 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 Haojing as well as Memphis and Babylon at 100,000 (pp. 33–34).
24. Chandler listed Thebes, Haojing, and Chengzhou (Luoyang) as the largest, second-largest, and third-largest cities (p. 460), though Luoyang is supposed to pass 100,000 in 1000 BCE (p. 541).
25. Haojing, which formed the capital of [[Western Zhou]] together with [[Fenghao]], was located 15 km SW of Chang'an, the capital of [[Tang dynasty]] as well as the present center of Xi'an. [[Han dynasty. 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.
26. 50,000. [[Luoyang
27. Morris, Ian. (October 2010). "Social Development". Stanford University.
28. According to Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 219), the population of Babylon for 700 BCE is estimated as 120,000, which makes Babylon the only city to appear as the largest, while Table 8 (a) shows that Babylon has 100,000 inhabitants in 700 BCE (p. 55).
29. Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 219) excludes Linzi for 500 BCE, though Table 5 (a) lists Linzi with 200,000 inhabitants (p. 41).
30. According to Chandler's list of the largest cities (pp. 523–527), Pataliputra was the largest for 300 to 195 BCE, but Chang'an is listed as the largest already in 200 BCE (p. 462).
31. Based on historical documents, in [[Liang dynasty. Southern Liang dynasty]], Jiankang ([[Nanjing]]) had 280,000 registered households, and assuming an average Nanjing household had about 5.1 people at that time, the city had more than 1.4 million residents. (Shufen Liu, "Jiankang and the Commercial Empire of the Southern Dynasties", in Pearce, Spiro, Ebrey eds. Culture and Power, 2001:35.)
32. [[Seleucia]] was founded on the right bank of [[Tigris]] opposite to Ctesiphon. Figures for Seleucia include the population of Ctesiphon as a suburb during the [[Seleucid Empire. Seleucid]] era and ''vice versa'' during the [[Sassanid Empire. Sassanid]] era.
33. The population of Daxing (Chang'an) in AD 600 is estimated at 250,000 in Morris's published text (p. 632), while the supporting material describes 600,000.
34. Modelski's list of world's largest cities (p. 219) estimates the population of Baghdad for AD 1000 as 1,500,000, which is much higher than the value listed in Table 8 (b) (1,200,000 inhabitants) (p. 55).
35. The population of Hangzhou in AD 1200 is estimated at 800,000 in Morris's published text (p. 632), while the supporting material describes 1,000,000.
36. Includes [[Üsküdar]] in [[Anatolia. Asia Minor]] as a suburb.
37. According to Morris (p. 483), Edo grew into the world's biggest city by 1720, but the estimated population for Edo is not given.
38. The population of Tokyo in AD 2000 is estimated at 26,700,000 in Morris's published text (p. 632), while the supporting material describes 26,400,000.