Largest City in the World by Area 2026

What is the largest city in the world by area?

Defining the largest cities in the world can be tricky as countries can have different definitions of what a city is. What the United States considers a “city” can be very different from what China considers to be a “city.”

Many “cities” have been redefined by modern population experts as “urban areas” that may encompass more than one of what have typically been referred to as cities. The definition of urban area used in assembling the data shown here was coined by Alex Blei of the NYU (New York University) Stern Marron Institute Urban Expansion Project. This defines urban areas as contiguous or mostly contiguous built-up areas that “function as an integrated economic unit, linked together by commuting flows, social and economic interactions.”

Examples of urban areas which appear in this report include Washington-Baltimore in the U.S. and Guangzhou-Shenzhen in China.

Largest Urban Area by Area [Minimum Population 500,000]

When using a minimum population of 500,000 people, the ten largest cities by area in the world in 2025 according to Chapman University’s Demographia study were:

1. New York, NY-NJ-CT, United States - 11,344 km² / 4,380 mi²
2. Guangzhou-Shenzhen, GD, China - 10,635 km² / 4,106 mi²
3. Shanghai-Changzhou, SH-SZ-ZG, China - 9,731 km² / 3,757 mi²
4. Boston-Providence, MA-NH-RI-CT-ME, United States - 8,847 km²/ 3,416 mi²
5. Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan - 8,775 km² / 3,388 mi²
6. Atlanta, GA, United States - 7,151 km²/ 2,761 mi²
7. Los Angeles, CA, United States - 6,918 km²/ 2,671 mi²
8. Moscow, Russia - 6,643 km²/ 2,565 mi²
9. Chicago, IL-IN-WI, United States - 6,532 km²/ 2,522 mi²
10. Washington-Baltimore, DC-VA-MD, United States - 5,600 km²/ 2,162 mi²

New York is the largest city in the world by area at 11,344 km² (4,380 mi²). New York’s estimated 2025 population reached 20,870,000, the highest in the United States.

Largest Cities by Area [No Minimum Population]

If one discards the minimum population threshold, the list of largest cities shifts completely—while also arguably challenging the definition of a “city”.

The largest city in the world by area by this broader definition is Sermersooq in Greenland. Sermersooq, formally named Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq, was formed on January 1, 2009, from five smaller municipalities. It spans over 531,900 square kilometers (205,400 square miles) and had a population of just 24,229 people as of January 2025. This makes Sermersooq’s population density a sparse 0.0456 persons per square kilometer (0.1180 persons per square mile), which could also be stated as one person for every 22 square kilometers (every nine square miles).

The second-largest city in the world is also located in Greenland. Avannaata was formed on January 1, 2018. It encompasses an area of 522,700 square kilometers (201,816 square miles) and has 10,726 inhabitants. Its population density is even less than that of Sermersooq, as 0.02 persons per square kilometer (0.05 persons per square mile).

China has the highest number of the world’s largest cities. The third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-largest cities in the world by area are all located in China: Nagqu, Hulunbuir, Jiuquan, and Shigatse.

Nagqu is a prefecture-level city encompassing 450,537 square kilometers (173,953 square miles) of land and containing 89 townships, 25 towns, and 1,283 villages.

This is followed by Hulunbuir, which has an area of 263,953 square kilometers (101,913 square miles). While Hulunbuir’s population is 2.549 million, most of the city is sparsely populated. The majority of the population resides in the Hailar District. Hulunbuir is mostly a grassy plateau – not what Western cultures consider being a “city.” Despite being a “city,” it is one of China’s most unspoiled pieces of land, with vast wilderness and national forest parks.

The fifth-largest city in the world is Jiuquan, another prefecture-level city located in the Gansu Province of China. Jiuquan spans an area of about 191,342 square kilometers (73,878 square miles) and has a population of 1.095 million, making it more densely populated than the other cities on the list (5.7 persons per square kilometer/15 persons per square mile).

Following Jiuqun is the prefecture-level city of Shigatse, which as an area of 182,000 square kilometers (70,721 square miles). With a population of just over 703,000, the city has a population density of 3.9 persons per kilometer (10 persons per square mile). Jiuquan is divided into one district and 17 counties.

In Australia, the largest city by area is Kalgoorlie-Boulder, which has a city council and mayor but only has a population of about 30,000 on land that is larger than Portugal at 100,000 square kilometers (38,610 square miles). The largest city in Brazil and the third-largest in the world, Altamira, is 159,534 square kilometers (61,596 square miles) and has a population of 109,938. This is the case for the largest U.S. cities as well. Yakutat is the largest city by area in America with an area of 24,509 square kilometers (9,463 square miles) and a population of only 660. Yakutat is about six times the six of Rhode Island.

Definitions & Methodology