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Abbottabad, 
Pakistan
851,819 people lived in Abbottabad in 2025. It is the 613th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 15th largest in Pakistan.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Abbottabad grew
For every 10 people in Abbottabad in 1975, there were 68 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.3 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2030 and 2035.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Abbottabad through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Abbottabad in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Pakistan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Abbottabad is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Pakistan in 2025, 323 in all, led by Karachi, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Abbottabad covered 111 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 19 km² of it. That is 22 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 15.8 times its size, and its people are 6.8 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in Pakistan
Its share of Pakistan
Of every 1,000 people in Pakistan in 2025, 3 lived in Abbottabad, which is 851,819 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Pakistan, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Abbottabad's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 609 Xinxiang China858,975
- 610 Kavar Iran857,280
- 611 Aguascalientes Mexico856,387
- 612 Jinzhou China854,575
- 613 Abbottabad851,819
- 614 Haizhou District China850,645
- 615 Port Said Egypt849,767
- 616 Muzaffarnagar India849,004
- 617 Cúcuta Colombia848,408
In Pakistan, 2025
- 452 Sargodha1,142,723
- 497 Quetta1,025,211
- 498 Mingora1,024,813
- 600 Nowshera872,172
- 613 Abbottabad851,819
- 619 Gujrat846,968
- 650 Sukkur812,885
- 684 Bahawalpur776,611
- 706 Taxila757,451
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Abbottabad are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1975 to 2025, then projection to 2050. Projected years are drawn hatched, and the UN publishes no range of uncertainty for a city. What a city means here, how the UN measures one, and why that number can differ from the one Abbottabad publishes about itself: how the figures here are put together.
Sources: UN WUP 2025 · Natural Earth · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries