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Al Hillah, 
Iraq
1,055,267 people lived in Al Hillah in 2025. It is the 486th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 7th largest in Iraq.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Al Hillah 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 Hillah grew
Where Al Hillah had 10 people in 1975, it had 79.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.1 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2020 and 2025.
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 Hillah through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Al Hillah in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Iraq · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Al Hillah is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Iraq in 2025, 88 in all, led by Baghdad, 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, Al Hillah covered 222 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 31 km² of it. That is 30 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.7 times its size, and its people are 8 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in Iraq
Its share of Iraq
Of every 100 people in Iraq in 2025, 2 lived in Al Hillah, which is 1.1 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Iraq; the coloured squares live in Al Hillah. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 482 João Pessoa Brazil1,064,481
- 483 Honghuagang China1,062,992
- 484 Naha Japan1,060,017
- 485 Bangui Central African Republic1,056,949
- 486 Al Hillah1,055,267
- 487 Tshikapa Democratic Republic of the Congo1,054,686
- 488 Kutubdia Bangladesh1,053,339
- 489 Tuen Mun Hong Kong1,053,083
- 490 Kottayam India1,043,314
In Iraq, 2025
- 293 Mosul1,665,214
- 312 Erbil1,582,829
- 403 Al-Najaf1,273,450
- 444 Kirkuk1,153,160
- 486 Al Hillah1,055,267
- 501 Karbala1,022,893
- 535 Duhok969,701
- 569 Sulaymaniyah907,815
- 577 Ad Diwaniyah894,478
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Al Hillah 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 Hillah 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