Karachi Is Now The Largest City in the World

[Nemesis]

As for the blogger, yes you could have refuted his findings if he had conceived them from at his own and had not done any credible research.

You mean cherry picking research.

Coming back to topic, No way is Karachi the largest city in the world. Not in Population estimate and certainly not in Area. If we take the population of NCR - National Capital Region of Delhi, it exceeds Karachi's 18 million estimate easily. Not to mention Mumbai, the biggest city in India population wise has over 20 million people residing.

Anyway, this is not really an achievement on any cities part. New York has only 6 - 8 million people and has an area about 5 times of Delhi.

 

[Xeric]

You mean cherry picking research.

Coming back to topic, No way is Karachi the largest city in the world. Not in Population estimate and certainly not in Area. If we take the population of NCR - National Capital Region of Delhi, it exceeds Karachi's 18 million estimate easily. Not to mention Mumbai, the biggest city in India population wise has over 20 million people residing.

Anyway, this is not really an achievement on any cities part. New York has only 6 - 8 million people and has an area about 5 times of Delhi.

You need to learn alot as regards to polls, surveys and ranks.

What you call as cherry picking is know as selective criteria to the civilized world, perhaps you need to understand that.

Do we consider China a world leader when it comes pollution and greener earth? No we dont. But we do consider her a topper when it comes to economy and growth. Similarly there are countries that would be considered rankable in milk production, IT opportunities, power generation, cleanliness, standard of living etc etc. So would you also term it as 'cherry picking'?

No country or city can top every list or would be an overall chart topper, it;s not possible. Cities in the US may top most of the lists, but would rank low when certain criterion would selected (say Rape graph, crimes etc).

It is simple, the blogger has simply quoted a website that ranked cities on the basis of Metro Population, you got issues, take it up with the website!

 

[Desert Fox]

List of cities proper by population - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to this Karachi is third, by City Proper. Karachi has no suburbs like other cities. The entire city is a metropolitan.

The above info seems outdated since by most Pakistani estimates the city population is indeed nearing 18 million. By the next census it would probably become official.

Malir n all have all been absorbed by Karachi and are no longer considered suburbs. The stats on most websites is not up to date. Google map it, see it for yourself, Karachi is huge.

so does this mean Karachi will become overpopulated and overcrowded?

 

[Nemesis]

What you call as cherry picking is know as selective criteria to the civilized world, perhaps you need to understand that.

Indeed?

It is simple, the blogger has simply quoted a website that ranked cities on the basis of Metro Population, you got issues, take it up with the website!

No, the blogger has cherry picked stats from the website to suit his agenda. Allow me to elucidate.

Firstly, a reminder of what is meant by the term Cherry Picking (Not that i doubt your command over the english language)

Definition - Cherry picking is the act of pointing at individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position.

Ignoring significant portion of data that contradict that position. Hm. Something like this -

Position taken by the blogger - .

Of these, Mumbai, Dhaka and Delhi also have the dubious distinction of making Mercer's list of world's dirtiest cities.

Ignoring significant data that contradict that position -

He happily points out Mercer ranking Delhi and Mumbai among the top 25 dirtiest cities in Asia but fails to point out the fact that the very same Mercer ranked Karachi 3rd least safe major city to live in (Karachi was ranked 213 out 215 in personal safety rankings) -

And now for the icing on cake, in 2009 that very same Mercer ranked Delhi and Mumbai 145 and 148 respectively in terms of quality of living and Karachi was ranked 186.

Thanks to Ruag for doing the research. I rest my case.

 

[Xeric]

Ok, so now you would shift your goal posts, right?

 

[SMC]

Any statistics available on Karachi's population are old and outdated. There has been a lot of migraton from other parts of Pakistan to Karachi since then which supplements the normal population growth. The official number is anywhere around 15-18 million (outdated) but residents believe it is 20-23 million at current.

 

[SMC]

Guys.. just a note about these western surveys.. their surveys are always based on information in the media which are different from ground realities, i.e. based on perception, particularly for countries like Pakistan which is not shown very nicely in the media. The same goes for the failed state rankings. Their dirtiest or safest cities or standard of living rankings cannot be taken seriously.

 

[RiazHaq]

so does this mean Karachi will become overpopulated and overcrowded?

Karachi has been overcrowded and overpopulated for some time now.

But urbanization is not necessarily a bad thing.

When visitors see a squatter city in India or Pakistan or Bangladesh, they observe overwhelming desperation: rickety shelters, little kids working or begging, absence of sanitation, ****** water and air. However, there are many benefits of rural to urban migration for migrants' lives, including reduction in abject poverty, empowerment of women, increased access to healthcare and education and other services. Historically, cities have been driving forces in economic and social development. As centers of industry and commerce, cities have long been centers of wealth and power. They also account for a disproportionate share of national income. The World Bank estimates that in the developing world, as much as 80 percent of future economic growth will occur in towns and cities. Nor are the benefits of urbanization solely economic. Urbanization is associated with higher incomes, improved health, higher literacy, and improved quality of life. Other benefits of urban life are less tangible but no less real: access to information, diversity, creativity, and innovation.

Haq's Musings: Do South Asian Slums Offer Hope?

 

[Awesome]

@ Asim Aquil

I guess the person starting the thread must have stuck to Population and Population density by not bringing in the state of Sanitation and Cost of Living under the scope of discussion . Cost of Living has to do with economics and GDP comes under Economics .

It is a simple question of LARGEST city. Who the hell is talking about economics?

 

[Awesome]

You mean cherry picking research.

Coming back to topic, No way is Karachi the largest city in the world. Not in Population estimate and certainly not in Area. If we take the population of NCR - National Capital Region of Delhi, it exceeds Karachi's 18 million estimate easily. Not to mention Mumbai, the biggest city in India population wise has over 20 million people residing.

Anyway, this is not really an achievement on any cities part. New York has only 6 - 8 million people and has an area about 5 times of Delhi.

We're talking about City Proper. Karachi has only a metropolitan area and zero to little suburbs.

The new areas like Malir n all have recently been incorporated into Karachi City Proper. We're not counting bastis and hut towns. Not towns of people sleeping on footpaths. Proper city area. In that Karachi is definitely the largest.

If you look at Mumbai, Mumbai is huge. But Mumbai Proper? It may be as big as Dubai.

 

[Awesome]

so does this mean Karachi will become overpopulated and overcrowded?

Obviously.

It may also mean bigger buildings to relieve pressure off the land

 

[S-2]

"Cities in the US may top most of the lists, but would rank low when certain criterion would selected (say Rape graph, crimes etc)."

Care to share your data here?

Thanks.

 

[Stumper]

Karachi has been overcrowded and overpopulated for some time now.

But urbanization is not necessarily a bad thing.

When visitors see a squatter city in India or Pakistan or Bangladesh, they observe overwhelming desperation: rickety shelters, little kids working or begging, absence of sanitation, ****** water and air. However, there are many benefits of rural to urban migration for migrants' lives, including reduction in abject poverty, empowerment of women, increased access to healthcare and education and other services. Historically, cities have been driving forces in economic and social development. As centers of industry and commerce, cities have long been centers of wealth and power. They also account for a disproportionate share of national income. The World Bank estimates that in the developing world, as much as 80 percent of future economic growth will occur in towns and cities. Nor are the benefits of urbanization solely economic. Urbanization is associated with higher incomes, improved health, higher literacy, and improved quality of life. Other benefits of urban life are less tangible but no less real: access to information, diversity, creativity, and innovation.

Haq's Musings: Do South Asian Slums Offer Hope?

Interesting post. But Riaz, dont you think what you are invariably supporting is exodus of not only people but also creation of imbalance
between Agriculture and Manufacturing?

 

[Xeric]

"Cities in the US may top most of the lists, but would rank low when certain criterion would selected (say Rape graph, crimes etc)."

Care to share your data here?

Thanks.

i was not trying to pin point a particular country here, was just exemplifying it. The US, well i love it and also it's a world leader so the name clicked. i have downloaded the 'data' and would take a minute to post it here (i have deliberately not added it in this post), but if you want i can add it now, but it wont be pretty. Moreover, i dont want to add another country into this harmless thread that the members have already made it into a comparative issue and created two competitors (namely indian and Pakistan), though there was nothing sort of a competition around here.

 

[Awesome]

i was not trying to pin point a particular country here, was just exemplifying it. The US, well i love it and also it's a world leader so the name clicked. i have downloaded the 'data' and would take a minute to post it here (i have deliberately not added it in this post), but if you want i can add it now, but it wont be pretty. Moreover, i dont want to add another country into this harmless thread that the members have already made it into a comparative issue and created two competitors (namely indian and Pakistan), though there was nothing sort of a competition around here.

The US, and all other data are not relevant here.

All that has been posted is that Karachi has become BIG. Nobody said its the next heaven on Earth. Its become big, for better or for worse, its BIG. Some nationalities here are I don't know, getting their panties in a twist over nothing.

Karachi has great infrastructure and it even has slums, its a large and progressive city of a third world nation. Live with it.