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Barranquilla, 
Colombia
2,208,021 people lived in Barranquilla in 2025. It is the 228th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in Colombia.
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 Barranquilla'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 Barranquilla grew
Where Barranquilla had 10 people in 1975, it had 26 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Barranquilla through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Barranquilla in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Colombia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Colombia and its 81 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Bogotá). Barranquilla 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, Barranquilla covered 164 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 51 km² of it. That is 23 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 61%, and its people are 2.6 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 Colombia
Its share of Colombia
Of every 100 people in Colombia in 2025, 4 lived in Barranquilla, which is 2.2 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Colombia, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Barranquilla's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 224 Ludhiana India2,245,106
- 225 Philadelphia United States2,232,420
- 226 Fukuoka Japan2,225,078
- 227 Meerut India2,209,886
- 228 Barranquilla2,208,021
- 229 Macau - Zhuhai Macao2,203,065
- 230 Doha Qatar2,193,708
- 231 Kaohsiung Taiwan2,187,455
- 232 Las Vegas United States2,183,655
In Colombia, 2025
- 31 Bogotá10,624,315
- 139 Medellín3,350,384
- 184 Cali2,700,232
- 228 Barranquilla2,208,021
- 510 Cartagena1,008,584
- 555 Bucaramanga939,291
- 617 Cúcuta848,408
- 902 Pereira602,831
- 954 Valledupar574,824
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 Barranquilla 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 Barranquilla 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