Topics
Az Zubayr, 
Iraq
220,737 people lived in Az Zubayr in 2025. It is the 2674th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 25th 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 Az Zubayr'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 Az Zubayr grew
For every 10 people in Az Zubayr in 1985, there were 37.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 317,202 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2030 and 2035. The UN first counts it as a city in 1985, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Az Zubayr through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Az Zubayr in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Iraq · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 88 cities in Iraq in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Baghdad. The ringed dot in colour is Az Zubayr; 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, Az Zubayr covered 29 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 9.4 km² of it. That is 43 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 2.4 times its size, and its people are 3.8 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 1,000 people in Iraq in 2025, 5 lived in Az Zubayr, which is 220,737 people.
How to read this: shrink Iraq to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Az Zubayr; 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
- 2661 Hossana Ethiopia221,895
- 2662 Sahebganj India221,858
- 2663 Mzuzu Malawi221,840
- 2670 Charlotte United States221,000
- 2674 Az Zubayr220,737
- 2675 Rustenburg South Africa220,723
- 2679 Gwoza Nigeria220,641
- 2680 Chlef Algeria220,634
- 2693 Gagnoa Côte d’Ivoire219,607
In Iraq, 2025
- 1870 Al-Shatrah307,652
- 2376 Shorsh245,565
- 2413 Gayara242,690
- 2464 Tal Afar237,454
- 2674 Az Zubayr220,737
- 2894 Suq al Shyukh206,015
- 3169 Abu Gharaq189,692
- 3194 Al Qurna188,604
- 4351 Al Kifl140,343
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 Az Zubayr are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1985 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 Az Zubayr 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