Topics
Baghdad, 
Iraq
Baghdād
6,390,735 people lived in Baghdad in 2025. It is the 63rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Iraq, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Baghdad governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
In its own language: Baghdād.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Baghdad grew
Where Baghdad had 10 people in 1975, it had 31.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 7.5 million people in 2050. It passed five million people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Baghdad through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Baghdad 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 ringed dot in colour is Baghdad; 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, Baghdad covered 701 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 205 km² of it. That is 32 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 83%, and its people are 3.1 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in Iraq
Its share of Iraq
Of every 100 people in Iraq in 2025, 14 lived in Baghdad, which is 6.4 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Iraq; the coloured squares live in Baghdad. 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
- 59 Addis Ababa Ethiopia6,705,705
- 60 Abidjan Côte d’Ivoire6,621,711
- 61 Chaozhou China6,407,770
- 62 Amman Jordan6,403,666
- 63 Baghdad6,390,735
- 64 Chengdu China6,139,874
- 65 Nairobi Kenya6,134,334
- 66 Kozhikode India6,123,872
- 67 Shenyang China5,702,638
In Iraq, 2025
- 63 Baghdad6,390,735
- 241 Basra2,033,553
- 293 Mosul1,665,214
- 312 Erbil1,582,829
- 403 Al-Najaf1,273,450
- 444 Kirkuk1,153,160
- 486 Al Hillah1,055,267
- 501 Karbala1,022,893
- 535 Duhok969,701
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 Baghdad 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 Baghdad 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