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Al-Najaf, 
Iraq
1,273,450 people lived in Al-Najaf in 2025. It is the 403rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 5th largest in Iraq.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Al-Najaf's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Al-Najaf grew
For every 10 people in Al-Najaf in 1975, there were 73.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.8 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2015 and 2020.
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-Najaf through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Al-Najaf in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Iraq · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Iraq and its 88 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Baghdad). Al-Najaf is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Al-Najaf covered 127 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 39 km² of it. That is 31 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.5 times its size, and its people are 7.3 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 Iraq
Its share of Iraq
Of every 100 people in Iraq in 2025, 3 lived in Al-Najaf, which is 1.3 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Iraq, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Al-Najaf's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 399 Ilorin Nigeria1,282,219
- 400 Lubango Angola1,280,986
- 401 Saharanpur India1,275,279
- 402 Antalya Türkiye1,273,822
- 403 Al-Najaf1,273,450
- 404 São Luís Brazil1,264,379
- 405 Herat Afghanistan1,259,425
- 406 Sendai Japan1,256,440
- 407 Bujumbura Burundi1,246,960
In Iraq, 2025
- 63 Baghdad6,390,735
- 241 Basra2,033,553
- 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
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-Najaf 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-Najaf 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