Why did the population of cities in the west decline so much after the antiquity period?

by Mr_Wanton

During and before antiquity there are various cities that had some 100k+ populations and some with close to a million.

But this becomes much rarer after. Why is this?

Georgy_K_Zhukov

Although focused only on Rome, this thread, and this answer from /u/shlin28 I imagine will interest you.