The following diagrams were taken from LSE’s Urban Age website. I’ve sorted them from lowest to highest peak residential population density. In each case I’ve also included the year of the dataset. 

It’s amazing how much these simple extrusion diagrams can tell you about the city. It also shows you that high population densities don’t necessarily need to equate to tall buildings. Barcelona, in particular, stands out for me.

Berlin (Peak residential density: 21,700 people/km2, 2009)

Stockholm (Peak residential density: 24,900 people/km2, 2012)

London (Peak residential density: 27,100 people/km2, 2013)

São Paulo (Peak residential density: 29,380 people/km2, 2009)

Mexico City (Peak residential density: 48,300 people/km2, 2009)

Barcelona (Peak residential density: 56,800 people/km2, 2013)

New York (Peak residential density: 59,150 people/km2, 2012)

Shanghai (Peak residential density: 74,370 people/km2, 2011)

Istanbul (Peak residential density: 77,300 people/km2, 2013)

Hong Kong (Peak residential density: 111,100 people/km2, 2013)

Mumbai (Peak residential density: 121,300 people/km2, 2013)

I love the work that LSE Cities (London School of Economics) is doing with Urban Age. If you haven’t yet checked out their site, you should do that now. If you’re a city geek, it’s the kind of site you can get lost in for hours. Especially if you’re a sucker for great diagrams like I am.

Here’s one I found today that shows where cities are growing in the world:

Each circle represents a city (well, metropolitan area). The dark green dot is the city’s population in 1950. The lighter green dot is the city’s population in 1990. And the yellow dot is the city’s projected population by 2025. Click here for a larger version of the map.

What’s fascinating about this diagram is that you can so clearly see how the most significant population growth has shifted away from the West to the rest of the world and in particular Asia. That is, those dots have more yellow than green.

We, of course, already knew this was happening. And population is just one dimension. But it’s still interesting to see this in diagram form. We are living through the rise of the East. And this diagram is a reminder of that.