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Antwerp, 
Belgium
652,506 people lived in Antwerp in 2025. It is the 832nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Belgium.
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 Antwerp grew
Where Antwerp had 10 people in 1975, it had 14.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 656,390 people in 2050.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Antwerp through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Antwerp in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Belgium · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Antwerp is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Belgium in 2025, 16 in all, led by Brussels, 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, Antwerp covered 220 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 55 km² of it. That is 84 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 9 by 9 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 85%, and its people have grown by 43%.
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 Belgium
Its share of Belgium
Of every 100 people in Belgium in 2025, 6 lived in Antwerp, which is 652,506 people.
How to read this: shrink Belgium to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Antwerp; 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
- 828 Bacolod Philippines655,836
- 829 Volgograd Russia655,020
- 830 Tamale Ghana654,868
- 831 Zucheng China654,599
- 832 Antwerp652,506
- 833 Changde China651,562
- 834 Mazar i sharif Afghanistan651,287
- 835 Nottingham United Kingdom649,610
- 836 Amarah Iraq645,612
In Belgium, 2025
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 Antwerp 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 Antwerp 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