Lagos, Cairo, Kinshasa listed in top 30 largest cities of the world  

. Lagos to move up to 9^th from 17^th by 2030

. Tokyo, world’s largest urban area, to maintain lead by 2030

. China, India with six, five cities in pack

Lagos, Nigeria’s business and financial capital, with estimated 2016 gross domestic product (GDP) economy in excess of $50.834 billion, is listed with Cairo in Egypt and Kinshasa in DRC as among the current world’s 30 largest cities by population and size, data by the United Nations Population Division (UNPD) have shown.

Tokyo, Japan’s capital city is currently the world’s largest urban area, with a population of 38.1 million, which is larger than the entire Canada with just 36.3 million people.

Lagos was listed as the 17^th on the global largest cities ranking, with a population of 13.661 million behind Cairo’s 19.128 million and 9^th on the scale. The former Nigerian federal capital, which some years ago was selected among the 100-member Resilient Cities Network, that aims to build urban resilience, pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation in the United States, is ranked ahead of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (otherwise called DRC), which has 12.07 million people occupying the 23^rd place.

According to the UNPD ranking, which was last updated in June this year, Lagos and Nigeria are among the world’s fastest growing countries in the world, and is expected to surpass all of the United States of America in population by 2050. Lagos, as a fast-growing city would move to the 9^th position on the world’s most populous cities’ list in 2030, with expected 24.239 million people living there.

It is also projected that more than half of the world’s population growth between 2017 and 2050 is estimated to happen in just nine countries, with Nigeria one of them.

China, the most populated country on Earth, has six of its cities listed among the top 30 largest cities pack. They are: Shanghai in third position with 21.484 million; Beijing, the 2008 Olympic city, in the 6^th position, with 21.240 million; Chongqing with 13.744 million people occupies the 16^th position; Guangzhou in Guangdong Province comes in the 19^th place with 13.070 million; Tianjin is in the 24^th position with 11.558 million people, and Shenzhen in the 26^th place with 10.828 million people.

New Delhi, India’s sprawling capital, occupies the second world’s largest city position with population of 26.454 million. The city is projected to gain almost 10 million people by 2030 to end up with a population of about 36,060,000 and remain in second place. India follows China, having five of its cities, including Delhi listed in the top 30 global cities. These are: Mumbai, with 21.357 million (4^th); Kolkata with 14.980 million in 14^th place; Bangalore, an industrial city with 10.456 million in the 28^th position and Chennai (Madras) at the 30^th place with 10.163 million. The South-East Asian nation is projected to have six cities by 2030, with the addition of Hyderabad with 12.7 million.

Other cities are: Sao Paolo (Brazil), 5^th place with 21.297 million; Mexico City in Mexico comes 7^th with 21.157 million; Osaka, Japan is 8^th with 20.337 million; New York, New York-Newark, USA is in 10^th position with 18.604 million; Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, with 18.237 million people is in 11^th position; Karachi, Pakistan is 12^th with 17.121 million; Buenos Aires, Argentina, has 15.334 million occupying 13^th; Istanbul, the Turkish city is 15^th with 14.365 million; Manila, Philippines is 18^th with 13.131 million; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil occupies 20^th with 12.981 million; Los Angeles, USA, the 1984 Olympic host city is 21^st with 12.317 million; Moscow, the host city for 2018 FIFA World Cup is 22^nd with 12.126 million; Paris, the French capital is in 25^th position with a population of 10.925 million; Jakarta, the Indonesian capital is the 27^th with 10.483 million, and London, United Kingdom, the 2012 Olympic host city is in the 29^th position with a population of 10.434 million. Though the Brexit frenzy city would experience growth to 11.467 million by 2030, it would fall out of the top 30 cities to 36.