by Carl Haub, senior demographer, PRB

If it were a country, what city would be the 34th largest on Earth? Tokyo!

Based on censuses, the UN Population Division estimates that Tokyo would be larger than 209 of the world’s countries. The “Tokyo” referred to here is the Kanto Major Metropolitan Area (MMA), as defined by the Japan Statistics Bureau. Tokyo’s population in 2012 was 37 million, just behind Poland and just ahead of Algeria, Uganda, and Canada.