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Ambato, 
Ecuador
274,672 people lived in Ambato in 2025. It is the 2110th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 6th largest in Ecuador.
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 Ambato grew
For every 10 people in Ambato in 1975, there were 33.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 344,433 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 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
Ambato through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Ambato in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ecuador · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Ecuador and its 32 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Guayaquil). Ambato 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, Ambato covered 69 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 16 km² of it. That is 57 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 5 times its size, and its people are 3.3 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 Ecuador
Its share of Ecuador
Of every 100 people in Ecuador in 2025, 2 lived in Ambato, which is 274,672 people.
How to read this: shrink Ecuador to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Ambato; 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
- 2106 Glenfield New Zealand275,322
- 2107 Morbi India275,191
- 2108 Pinggu China274,753
- 2109 Koléa Algeria274,748
- 2110 Ambato274,672
- 2111 Pucallpa Peru274,639
- 2112 Reading United Kingdom274,632
- 2113 San Salvador de Jujuy Argentina274,625
- 2115 RICCO Industrial Area India274,572
In Ecuador, 2025
- 197 Quito2,534,914
- 1149 Cuenca482,272
- 1594 Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas356,829
- 2026 Manta287,756
- 2110 Ambato274,672
- 2243 Salinas [Santa Elena]260,161
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 Ambato 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 Ambato 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