Cities with the world's largest slums

Dec7,2023

Dubbed "Garbage City," this slum at the base of the Mokattam hills in southeastern Cairo is home predominantly to Coptic Christians who work as Zabbaleen, or garbage collectors. 

Manshiyat Nasser, Cairo

In Cite-Soleil, criminal gangs outgun the police. Health care and education facilities are scarce and sub-standard.

Cite-Soleil, Haiti

It was set up in the 1980s as a ghetto for black workers who migrated to Cape Town in search of jobs during the apartheid era, though it grew rapidly after the oppressive system was abolished in 1994.

Khayelitsha, Cape Town

Dirty water and other hygiene issues mean that disease is rampant, and sorting through the rubbish for items that can be sold or recycled is the only source of income for many residents who are lucky if they earn $2.50 a day.

Tondo, Manila

Romanticized in the Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire," Dharavi is a sprawling warren of narrow lanes, interconnected shacks and single-room living spaces that double as factories.

Dharavi, Mumbai

While some contend that Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, also known as Neza, has evolved from a slum into a suburb, the brick-and-mortar houses are scattered among improvised shanties, and the neighborhood is considered extremely dangerous, even by drug war-plagued Mexico's standards.

Neza, Mexico

More than two-thirds of the residents in the Kenyan capital live in three slums crowded into just 6% of the city's land. Kibera, for instance, is a sprawling community of 15 interconnected villages of mud huts and tin shacks. 

Kibera, Kenya

This cluster of 113 settlements on the outskirts of Karachi, on Pakistan's western coast, sprawls across some 8,000 acres and is home to at least 1.5 million people, though many estimates peg the total closer to 2.4 million. 

Orangi town, Pakistan