Most of East Asia's big cities lost people since 2020

Claim types Estimate · Interpretation

Estimate. UN DESA Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects 2025 (2025 Revision), File 21, city population (thousands), cities defined by the UN Degree of Urbanisation (contiguous dense built-up areas, not administrative city limits, so values differ from national 'city proper' figures), read from the UN file via the progrss vault (GUIDELINES §4.11). Cities joined on UN city code, values deduplicated. Method (progrss calculation): for each five-year step, the cities with 1 million people or more at the start of the step; a city 'shrank' if the UN's figure at the end of the step is lower than at the start. East Asia = the UN's Eastern Asia region: China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Dem. People's Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan Province of China, Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR. East Asia, cities that shrank / cities of 1 million+: 2000–05 8 of 75 (10.7%); 2005–10 15 of 83 (18.1%); 2010–15 15 of 84 (17.9%); 2015–20 20 of 94 (21.3%); 2020–25 55 of 97 (56.7%). Same-method control (§4.12), rest of the world: 25 of 262 (9.5%); 29 of 286 (10.1%); 24 of 320 (7.5%); 37 of 356 (10.4%); 34 of 394 (8.6%). World: 33 of 337 in 2000–05, 89 of 491 in 2020–25. 2020–25 by economy: China 35 of 73, Japan 10 of 10, Republic of Korea 4 of 5, Taiwan Province of China 4 of 4, Hong Kong SAR 2 of 2, Macao SAR, Mongolia and Pyongyang grew. Most falls are small: of the 55, 32 fell by more than 1% and 43 by more than 0.5%; counting only falls above 0.5%, the 2020–25 share is 44%. Wuhan −2.6%, Chengdu −2.1%, Chongqing −1.9%, Osaka −3.7%, Tokyo −0.8% (2020 to 2025). The total population of East Asia's 97 million-cities still rose 1.0% in 2020–25 (403.5 million to 407.8 million), against 6.2% in 2015–20 (376.7 million to 399.9 million). 2025 values are UN estimates, not census counts, and city statistics offices using administrative boundaries may report growth where the UN shows a fall; 2020 is a census year in China, Japan and Korea. Years after 2025 in the file are projections and are not used. Each point on the chart is the five years ending that year. Commercial use permitted (UN DESA). Interpretation: the last clause of takeaway 3.