Thursday, February 17 2005 13:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata are among the ten most populated cities in the world with a total population of around 47 million, a new United Nations report has said.

Mumbai has 18.3 million people, Delhi 15.3 and Kolkata 14.3 million, it said.

Tokyo with 35.3 million people tops the list with Mexico city distant second with 19.2 million. The third place is occupied by New York-Newark area in the US with a population of 18.5 million closely followed by Mumbai, Sao Paulo and Brazil who are tied at fourth place with each hosting 18.3 million people.

Buenos Aires, Argentina, hold the seventh position with 13.3 million people followed by Jakarta, Indonesia, with 13.2million and Shanghai, China with 12.7 million.

The report on world demographic trends, shows urban population is rising rapidly and the number of elderly people is increasing, which would require major economic and social changes over the next few decades.

About half of the world population of 6.5 billion, 3.2 billion already lives in the urban areas and the number is expected to shoot up to 5 billion by 2007. But most the urban dwellers live in "small settlements" with less than 5,00,000 inhabitants, the report said.

The report, prepared for UN Economic and Social Council, shows the uneven growth of population, as it will increase rapidly in several countries in Asia and Africa but developed countries are expected to witness a "significant" decline with fertility rates falling below replacement levels.