Most of the world’s largest cities line up inside the same narrow strip of Earth

    by Many-Philosophy4285

    37 Comments

    1. HugoZHackenbush2 on

      The capital of Ireland is not in the strip, the population in that city is Dublin every year..

    2. ASouthernDandy on

      It’s basically latitude + history. Most big cities sit between about 30° and 60° north because that band has mild seasons, reliable rainfall, and was easiest for early agriculture. Add long coastlines and major rivers for trade, and settlements just kept stacking there for thousands of years.

      The southern hemisphere has way less land in that same temperate band, so fewer chances for cities to snowball the same way. It’s not mystical, it’s climate, crops, and shipping lanes doing the heavy lifting.

    3. IfNotBackAvengeDeath on

      What? More than half of the top 10 aren’t in that strip. Jakarta (#1), Dhaka (#2), Delhi (#4), Guangzhou (#6), Manila (#8), Kolkata (#9). Likewise, half the 11-20 aren’t: Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Bangkok, Mexico City, Ho Chi Minh City.

    4. Professional_File_83 on

      It’s almost as if there’s way more land mass than the comparable stretch in the southern hemisphere

    5. Mental-Geologist2819 on

      What really hilarious is that more then half of the human population is living within a radius of 1000km in Asia 🤣

    6. I’m sorry. In no universe is that strip narrow. That strip contains like 30% of the Earth’s land area.

      There is also a very long list of massive cities outside the area. You’re really not managing to make a point here.

    7. Quick-Economist-4247 on

      That’s because that’s close to the equator and as such the longest way around the sphere, where you’ll find the largest land masses and the most favourable climates. Hot take, that’s where the biggest countries are 😂

    8. Thats not that narrow of a strip and there are tons of cities outside of it. What an uninteresting post.

    9. “Narrow” strip.

      That covers nearly the entirety of the continental US, almost all of Europe, China, and the Middle East. The only outlier is India

    10. Mundane_Molasses6850 on

      every where else is too hot or cold. imo all people living outside the band should be allowed to move into the band.

      this doesnt have to mean the newcomers would get social system benefits or anything like that. but they should have a right to live and work in the band

    11. “Narrow strip”

      *covers most of China, India, and the US as well as most of the fertile/very habitable land where most people would’ve migrated to in times past*

      Hmm…what could this mean?

    12. Myles_Standish250 on

      The most comfortable climate cities are right in the middle of that zone. For me, basically all of Spain and Southern California fit the bill.

    13. These are the 10 most populous cities. Only half of them are in that zone. Fail.

      Tokyo, Japan: Around 37-38 million

      X- Delhi, India: Around 29-34 million

      Shanghai, China: Around 26-30 million

      X- São Paulo, Brazil: Around 21-23 million

      X- Mexico City, Mexico: Around 21-22 million

      X- Dhaka, Bangladesh: Around 20-24 million

      Cairo, Egypt: Around 20-23 million

      Beijing, China: Around 19-22 million

      X- Mumbai, India: Around 20-23 million

      Osaka, Japan: Around 19 million

    14. Ah yes, the most habitable zone of the most habitatable planet. That place where the people are. Warm, food.. etcetera

    15. ArmadilloBrave893 on

      Don’t forget the recent glacier movement carved deep water ports in these latitudes. Water is much more efficient for transporting goods and without deep water ports it is much harder to trade goods.

    16. In summary of comments here: the strip is not that narrow, and there are still many many of the world’s largest cities that lie outside of this actually wide strip.

      edit: A better infographic would mark the world’s largest cities on the map, then we can immediately identify how many of them are concentrated within the strip.

    17. So according to you largest = Richest. Because you ignore major cities/population centers in India, africa and South America.

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