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Al Ahsa, 
Saudi Arabia
725,760 people lived in Al Ahsa in 2025. It is the 738th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 6th largest in Saudi Arabia.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Al Ahsa governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Al Ahsa grew
Count 10 people in Al Ahsa in 1975 and the same count gives 92.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.2 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2040 and 2045.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Al Ahsa through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Al Ahsa in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Saudi Arabia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 44 cities in Saudi Arabia in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Riyadh. The ringed dot in colour is Al Ahsa; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Al Ahsa covered 176 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 45 km² of it. That is 62 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.9 times its size, and its people are 9.2 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in Saudi Arabia
Its share of Saudi Arabia
Of every 100 people in Saudi Arabia in 2025, 2 lived in Al Ahsa, which is 725,760 people.
How to read this: shrink Saudi Arabia to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Al Ahsa; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 734 Lu'an China729,998
- 735 Tulungagung Indonesia728,924
- 736 Balikpapan Indonesia728,771
- 737 Zhumadian China727,923
- 738 Al Ahsa725,760
- 739 Suqian China725,070
- 740 Louhajang Bangladesh725,057
- 741 Kamina Democratic Republic of the Congo724,982
- 742 Bouaké Côte d’Ivoire724,691
In Saudi Arabia, 2025
- 100 Jeddah4,284,080
- 212 Dammam2,335,647
- 289 Mecca1,692,152
- 354 Medina1,432,287
- 738 Al Ahsa725,760
- 990 Tabuk553,389
- 1113 Khamis Mushayt497,246
- 1151 At Ta'if481,818
- 1895 Hafar Al-Batin302,534
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 Al Ahsa 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 Al Ahsa 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