The city of lights, Karachi, is expected to become the world’s fifth-largest city in almost 20 years.
By 2050, Karachi is projected to rise to fifth place, with a population of almost 33 million.
According to the World Urbanisation Prospects 2025, the number of megacities has quadrupled from eight in 1975 to 33 in 2025, with over half located in Asia, specifically 19 megacities. Projections indicate that there will be 37 megacities globally by 2050.
In 2025, the world’s most densely populated cities will have more than 20,000 inhabitants per square kilometre. Many of these densely populated cities are also among the world’s most populous, including Karachi with 25,000 people per square kilometre.
It is pertinent to mention that Dhaka is expected to become the world’s largest city by 2050. As of late 2025, Tokyo, Japan is the most populous city in the world.
The global rural population is expected to peak sometime during the 2040s and then begin to gradually decline.
According to the report, worldwide, more than 3,000 cities experienced population decline between 2015 and 2025.
Recently, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi Ameer Monem Zafar pointed out that Karachi has of all type of crises, including acute water shortage, prolonged power outages, broken roads and skyrocketing street crimes since ages.
The construction of Hub Canal, the water crisis persists in District West, District Keamari, Korangi Town, SITE West, North Karachi, and Sector 7-D, he said, adding that despite the passage of 22 years, the failure to complete the K-IV Water Supply Project was a glaring example of the incompetence of successive governments.
The JI leader noted that Karachi needs 1,200 million gallons of water per day, while currently, only 650 million gallons per day are supplied to Karachi
