Largest Subway Systems in the World by Annual Ridership and Metropolitan Population, 2000

Many subway systems carry more than 1 billion passengers per year. The level of ridership is linked with several geographical and economic considerations. Moscow, the most used subway system in the world, has a long tradition of subsidized public transportation (communism) and transit-oriented urban planning. Economic problems that have impacted Russia over the last 10 years have contributed to subway ridership. Many high-density cities have a level of subway ridership proportional to their population (London, Hong Kong, Osaka, Paris, Seoul and Tokyo) indicating a consistent level of ridership where public transit accounts between 25% and 50% of commuting. Cities where ridership is proportionally less than the population have either a significant portion of their population too poor to afford subway (Sao Paulo and Mexico), or wealthy enough to prefer the automobile (New York).