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Amarah, 
Iraq
645,612 people lived in Amarah in 2025. It is the 836th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 15th largest in Iraq.
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 Amarah grew
Count 10 people in Amarah in 1975 and the same count gives 52.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 894,649 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1990 and 1995.
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
Amarah through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Amarah in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Iraq · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Amarah 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, Amarah covered 67 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 17 km² of it. That is 26 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 5 times its size, and its people are 5.3 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, 1 lived in Amarah, which is 645,612 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Iraq; the coloured squares live in Amarah. 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
- 832 Antwerp Belgium652,506
- 833 Changde China651,562
- 834 Mazar i sharif Afghanistan651,287
- 835 Nottingham United Kingdom649,610
- 836 Amarah645,612
- 837 Nuremberg Germany644,169
- 838 Dhule India643,777
- 839 Toulouse France642,224
- 840 Jalpaiguri India642,158
In Iraq, 2025
- 577 Ad Diwaniyah894,478
- 645 Zakho814,526
- 647 Nasiriyah813,799
- 648 Al Mushahidah813,506
- 836 Amarah645,612
- 960 Jafar Muhammad Ali570,883
- 1132 Al-Kut491,247
- 1240 Ramadi449,183
- 1443 As Samawah393,865
How to read this: the number before each name is its place among all 12,138 cities in the world in 2025; bars are people, on one scale per list. Only cities that reach 300,000 people have a page here, so a gap in the numbers is a smaller city.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Amarah 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 Amarah 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