Where are the largest cities?

Secondary Resources > KS3 Geography / GCSE Geography

This video was first published in April 2016 and some information may no longer be accurate.

Which cities are the world's largest and where are they located? Play this 60-second animation to find out.

Urbanisation and the growth of global cities are an important aspect of both the KS3 and KS4 curriculums. Students should be able to name and locate the largest cities around the world and understand where growth is happening most rapidly.

Use this short clip to illustrate that growth. Ask students to write down which locations are growing most rapidly and to make predictions as to why growth is happening in those locations. This is a great opportunity to explore vocabulary such as fertility rates, rural-to-urban migration and natural increase.

Students could create their own maps to show where the largest cities in the world are. They could practice drawing proportional symbol maps or choropleth maps to practice presenting this data.

Where next?

Websites such as Our World in data are a great source of geographical data. Students could explore the data provided on this site to help them understand historical growth rates as well as what might happen in the future.

• Urban populations
• KS3 urbanisation