Jakarta has officially become the world’s most populous city, surpassing Tokyo for the first time, according to the newly released World Urbanization Prospects 2025 report from the United Nations. The report places the population of the Jakarta metropolitan region — commonly known as Jabodetabek — at nearly 42 million people, ahead of Dhaka with almost 40 million and Tokyo with around 33 million.
The finding marks a historic shift in global urban demographics and highlights the immense pressures facing Indonesia’s capital region. The UN notes that 45 percent of the world’s 8.2 billion people now live in cities, with more than half of all megacities located in Asia. This rapid growth has intensified challenges related to infrastructure, transportation, housing, and environmental resilience.
Did Not Surprise
Urban experts say the UN’s confirmation did not come as a surprise. Elisa Sutanudjaja, Executive Director of the Rujak Centre for Urban Studies (RCUS), said in an interview with ABC News Australia that the report “confirmed what urbanists already knew — that the greater Jakarta metropolitan area had outgrown Tokyo years ago.” She emphasized that Jakarta’s biggest obstacle is fragmented governance, as the megacity spans multiple regional administrations with limited coordination. According to Sutanudjaja, “poor coordination between local governments” continues to hinder effective metropolitan planning.
Environmental strain is among the most severe challenges emerging from Jakarta’s explosive growth. The city is considered one of the most climate-vulnerable capitals in the world, experiencing chronic flooding and some of the fastest land subsidence rates recorded globally. Earlier RCUS studies described subsidence as a “crisis built from below,” driven by excessive groundwater extraction, heavy construction loads, and weak spatial regulation. In some northern districts, the land has been sinking by between 4 and 10 centimeters per year, placing millions of residents at increased risk.
The housing sector reflects another destabilizing pressure point. Despite decades of expansion, the growth of Jakarta’s population continues to outpace the availability of affordable and safe housing. Many low-income families have been pushed into informal settlements or overcrowded neighborhoods that lack basic services and are highly exposed to extreme weather. One emerging model — a low-rise cooperative housing system developed by RCUS — is being tested in Menteng, where a four-story building now houses multiple families under a cooperative structure. While promising, experts caution that scaling such solutions requires substantial political backing and long-term financing.
Effect for Public City Transport
Transport infrastructure also struggles to keep pace with the city’s density. Carlos Nemesis, an urban mobility specialist at ITDP Indonesia, noted that public transit usage remains far below what is needed for a megacity of Jakarta’s scale. Despite significant improvements in recent years, including the expansion of MRT, LRT, and TransJakarta networks, he argues that transit-oriented development (TOD) “is still not delivering its full potential,” largely because development around stations has not consistently aligned with community needs and affordability.
Jakarta’s new status as the world’s largest urban agglomeration underscores the urgency for major policy reforms. Environmental safeguards, groundwater regulation, flood management, public transit expansion, and spatial planning must be dramatically strengthened. At the same time, Indonesia’s ongoing plan to relocate its administrative capital to the new city of Nusantara (IKN) does little to resolve the structural challenges faced by Jakarta, which will remain the country’s economic, cultural, and population center.
For Jakarta, the UN report is more than a demographic milestone — it is a stark warning that the city is entering a critical phase. With a population larger than any other city on Earth, Jakarta’s ability to adapt, coordinate, and transform will determine not only the city’s future but also the well-being of tens of millions who call it home. (Sulung Prasetyo)
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