Merry Andrew wrote:You could, theoratically, hhave the world's largest city with a populations in the double digits. Would a 5,000 sq. km area with a population of 23 be counted as a city?
No.
However, a probable top contender for the statistic of largest-city-with-comparatively-smallest-population would be Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. Many inhabitants still live in the traditional tents, yurts - an extensive use of space. That means that, although a prolific view of the city looks like
this (ie, rather Soviet), much of the city is arranged like
this (picture of the aerial view of a so-called yurt-quarter, where former nomads settled with their tents, building make-shift sheds and the like around it).
All in all, the territory of Ulan Bator capital is 1,815 sq. miles (or 4,700km²), while the population is only 812,500 (
link). That means an average of only 173 inhabitants per square kilometre.
And on that magnificently trivial note, I'm going to bed.
