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Auckland, 
New Zealand
1,123,094 people lived in Auckland in 2025. It is the 462nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in New Zealand.
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 Auckland grew
For every 10 people in Auckland in 1975, there were 41.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.3 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
Auckland through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Auckland in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
New Zealand · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 10 cities in New Zealand in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Auckland; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Auckland covered 403 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 144 km² of it. That is 128 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 11 by 11 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.6 times its size, and its people are 4.1 times as many.
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 New Zealand
Its share of New Zealand
Of every 100 people in New Zealand in 2025, 21 lived in Auckland, which is 1.1 million people.
How to read this: shrink New Zealand to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Auckland; 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
- 458 Srinagar India1,126,638
- 459 Cologne Germany1,125,292
- 460 Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso1,125,023
- 461 Suhaj Egypt1,123,349
- 462 Auckland1,123,094
- 463 Belgrade Serbia1,121,410
- 464 Enugu Nigeria1,115,303
- 465 Berhampore India1,109,144
- 466 Minneapolis [Saint Paul] United States1,107,243
In New Zealand, 2025
- 462 Auckland1,123,094
- 2106 Glenfield275,322
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 Auckland 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 Auckland 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