Bangkok Is The 22nd Most Populous City In The World

[nanyang]

Bangkok Forum

Bangkok is the 22nd most populous city in the world with a recorded population of about 6 million, The city is a major economic and financial center of Southeast Asia.

Where did this statistical gem come from?

Coz, like many things in Thailand, it's nonsense.

[phetaroi]

Bangkok Forum

Bangkok is the 22nd most populous city in the world with a recorded population of about 6 million, The city is a major economic and financial center of Southeast Asia.

Where did this statistical gem come from?

Coz, like many things in Thailand, it's nonsense.

I agree. The population was "about" 6 million when I first went in 1987.

[Birdman]

Bangkok is not that big.

[BKKDUDE]

Because i'm BkkDude and lived in more than 10 differnet areas all over greater bangkok, this is nonsense

Today we have at least 14 millions living in Cosmo bangkok and another 10 Millions in greater bangkok area like

samutprakan, patumthani, nontaburi...Total 24 million.

[Birdman]

Because i'm BkkDude and lived in more than 10 differnet areas all over greater bangkok, this is nonsense

Today we have at least 14 millions living in Cosmo bangkok and another 10 Millions in greater bangkok area like

samutprakan, patumthani, nontaburi...Total 24 million.

What is nonsens? Is Bangkok the 22nd most popular city or not?

[Xangsamhua]

I don't think anyone knows how many people live in "Bangkok" or what that means. The part administered by the BMA? Greater Bangkok, including Samut Prakarn, Nonthaburi, Patumthani, etc?

Perhaps Bangkok really is just "a state of mind".

[nanyang]

Because i'm BkkDude and lived in more than 10 differnet areas all over greater bangkok, this is nonsense

Today we have at least 14 millions living in Cosmo bangkok and another 10 Millions in greater bangkok area like

samutprakan, patumthani, nontaburi...Total 24 million.

You're asserting that 'about' 40% of Thailand's population live in these areas - interesting.

Would it be in order to ask 'whoever' to remove this contentious statement?

[Birdman]

I don't think anyone knows how many people live in "Bangkok" or what that means. The part administered by the BMA? Greater Bangkok, including Samut Prakarn, Nonthaburi, Patumthani, etc?

Perhaps Bangkok really is just "a state of mind".

and who knows how many people live in the Indian, African, Chinese, South American mega cities?

[PeaceBlondie]

According to this term in wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metro...s_by_population

not in the top 20. Terms vary.

32nd in world? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban...s_by_population

Anyway, Lampang and Mae Hong Son are not in the top 185

[Jimjim]

There's no doubt there are a lot of people in Bangkok, and surely over 10 million, if you include the immigrant and unregistered populations. Doubtless there's over 10 million in Bangkok at any given time, in my opinioon. There is also no doubt that some would consider places like Nonthaburi and Thonburi as part of Bangkok regardless of boundaries, as to the casual observer nothing separates them from Bangkok, it all is just part of the urban mass. It's all how you qualify it. Of course Bangkok is a huge city, far bigger than any other in Thailand, with a plethora of international and Thai businesses centered here, so of course it's going to have a large chunk of the population, although 24 million for the metro area seems a bit high, but if you go out to as far as provinces like Lopburi, Saraburi and Ayutthuya in the ring around Bangkok, maybe you could get that high. It's all guesses for me, though. But it's just the nature of gargantuan, international cities such as Bangkok that they will contain a large percentage of a country's population. Duh.

[think_too_mut]

.... Of course Bangkok is a huge city, far bigger than any other in Thailand

Next biggest ones are Pattaya, Khorat and Chiang mai. Any of them having about 2% of BKK's population, each.

[Nana]

A survey a few years back was suggesting that unregistered residents of Bangkok is outnumbering registered residents by 1:1,6. This would at that time make the population of Bangkok somewere between 15 and 16 million people. Thais only.

Sorry I can not remember where I read it.

24 million would make Bangkok the biggest city in the world......bigger than Tokyo with surroundings. Without me knowing......no I don't think so.

I'm not BKKDUDE or what ever. But then I never counted in my 22 years here.

Nana

Edited May 9, 2009 by Nana

[MickGram]

Because i'm BkkDude and lived in more than 10 differnet areas all over greater bangkok, this is nonsense

Today we have at least 14 millions living in Cosmo bangkok and another 10 Millions in greater bangkok area like

samutprakan, patumthani, nontaburi...Total 24 million.

Not a prayer there are 24 mil in BKK. Best guess it fluctuates between 7 and 8 depending on season. Well over 80% of Thai live outside the capital.

[snuggzzz]

Looking around sites I've 'Googled' the Population of Bangkok varies, lowest is 7.2m

[Valjean]

The Wiki chart was fun to play with sorting the columns

Of the 15 biggest metros in area 11 of the top 15 are in the US. And as you'd expect 14 of 15 of the least dense are in the US.

If you took the average density of the smallest metros (3333) and had that same density for the average US metros above in area the average population would be over 75 million.

Also interesting of the 189 metro areas represented 79 countries. I found it interesting how many big metro areas the US has say compared to Russia or especially Indonesia.

Metros on this list

People's Republic of China 30

United States 20

India 15

Brazil 10

Japan 5

Germany 4

Indonesia 4

Mexico 4

Pakistan 4

South Africa 4

Canada 3

Colombia 3

Italy 3

Republic of China (Taiwan) 3

South Korea 3

Turkey 3

United Kingdom 3

Australia 2

Egypt 2

Iran 2

Nigeria 2

Poland 2

Russia 2

Saudi Arabia 2

Spain 2

Syria 2

Vietnam 2

How big is Bangkok? No one really knows. Which must apply to most of the cities on the list outside of the most developed countries. Even in the US it's a big political issue who to count with so many illegal immigrants.

I suspect the Wikipedia info is a good a guess as any.

[BigSnake]

Know many will doubt them number including your truly

[think_too_mut]

The Wiki chart was fun to play with sorting the columns

Of the 15 biggest metros in area 11 of the top 15 are in the US. And as you'd expect 14 of 15 of the least dense are in the US.

If you took the average density of the smallest metros (3333) and had that same density for the average US metros above in area the average population would be over 75 million.

Also interesting of the 189 metro areas represented 79 countries. I found it interesting how many big metro areas the US has say compared to Russia or especially Indonesia.

Metros on this list

People's Republic of China 30

United States 20

India 15

Brazil 10

Japan 5

Stopped quoting after Japan.

Five metropolitan areas.

The quoted source is not saying how big they are.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government looks after 35 million people. More than entire Canada.

Wikipedia - metroploitan areas.

[PeaceBlondie]

Maybe 88 million just for downtown BKK, and 120,000 for Chianmai Province, comparing traffic jams.

[Jimjim]

24 million would make Bangkok the biggest city in the world......bigger than Tokyo with surroundings. Without me knowing......no I don't think so.

I'm not BKKDUDE or what ever. But then I never counted in my 22 years here.

Nana

Nope, Tokyo with surroundings is well over 30 million people. He was saying Bangkok could be 24 million but including several surrounding provinces, some 30 or more miles from the center of Bangkok, but I still wouldn't estimate 24 mil even with that.

[yongli]

24 million would make Bangkok the biggest city in the world......bigger than Tokyo with surroundings. Without me knowing......no I don't think so.

I'm not BKKDUDE or what ever. But then I never counted in my 22 years here.

Nana

I agree, I have been to a few of the big ones on the Wikipedia List. Bkk is a big city yes, but it would be really a far stretch to go for much more than 10 million. Care to name statistics where Bkk is estimated at 24 Mio, or even only 15 Mio? It seems, some of us would love to live in a Megacity - and with a really high pop density. Well, China, India, Bangladesh they have that. I heard good things about Cairo as well To me 7 - 10 Mio is more than enough. And in Bkk you still find lot's of areas with low rise buildings and nice palm trees. To me the main issue in Bkk is the traffic. The amount of ppl on the streets in Bkk is very tolerable, as far as I am concerned. And a lot less than what I have experienced elsewhere.

Edited May 13, 2009 by yongli

[Jimjim]

For the size Bangkok is, though, there really should be way more nice, clean green areas. Been to far smaller cities with much nicer green areas and parks. Bangkok is too dirty and mismanaged to be a top livable city, really.

[JR Texas]

For the size Bangkok is, though, there really should be way more nice, clean green areas. Been to far smaller cities with much nicer green areas and parks. Bangkok is too dirty and mismanaged to be a top livable city, really.

Very hard to estimate the actual population size of the greater metropolitan area.......spread out over a huge area.

But this makes for interesting reading: http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf

According to these "experts," the population size of Bangkok is about 8.3 million now and will rise to about 10.7 million by 2030.

I personally think these data are conservative estimates.

The greater Tokyo area has the largest number of people..............

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

Easier to estimate the number of ants in a ant hill.

[maccaroni man]

For the size Bangkok is, though, there really should be way more nice, clean green areas. Been to far smaller cities with much nicer green areas and parks. Bangkok is too dirty and mismanaged to be a top livable city, really.

good friend of mine from london once told me "no place is a city unless it has 10m people" with undocumented res included imho i think bkk is a city and given this citieria there are not that many world wide. bkk is a nice place to visit

[PeaceBlondie]

One million is a nice size for an urban area.

[Birdman]

For the size Bangkok is, though, there really should be way more nice, clean green areas. Been to far smaller cities with much nicer green areas and parks. Bangkok is too dirty and mismanaged to be a top livable city, really.

good friend of mine from london once told me "no place is a city unless it has 10m people" with undocumented res included imho i think bkk is a city and given this citieria there are not that many world wide. bkk is a nice place to visit

that's right, and no place is a village without the Village People.

[Aswin]

Bangkok is not that big.

Neither is New York City with 19 million people.

[Nana]

The Bangkok Metropolitan Area covers an area of 7,761.50 km² and has a registered population of 10,100,964 (as of June 1, 2008). The city is now home to nearly 3-4 million illegal, and 2 million legal foreigners. This according to Wikipedia and the Ministry Of Interior.

Everyone who knows how the registration system works know that a huge number of the Thais, working and living in Bangkok, are in fact registered as living elswhere in the country.

So that the population in Bangkok Metropolitan area at any given time is at least 15 million people is probably a conservative estimate.

[Nana]

24 million would make Bangkok the biggest city in the world......bigger than Tokyo with surroundings. Without me knowing......no I don't think so.

I'm not BKKDUDE or what ever. But then I never counted in my 22 years here.

Nana

Nope, Tokyo with surroundings is well over 30 million people. He was saying Bangkok could be 24 million but including several surrounding provinces, some 30 or more miles from the center of Bangkok, but I still wouldn't estimate 24 mil even with that.

If there is 24 million in Bangkok Metropolitan area it would be bigger that Tokyo Metropolitan area with it's estimated 12 million . Only if you consider Yokohama and Kawasaki a part of Tokyo it would be the biggest city in the world. 37 million in fact. But the 3 metropolitian areas is different cities that have grown together. But there is another city in China that i missed,Chongquing, where the Metropolitan area is 31 million.

Seoul in South Korea is about 22 million.

[PeaceBlondie]

Being a Texan I like to brag about who has the biggest, the most But after living in Houston, I decided that one or two million was more than enough.