Topics
Basel, 
Switzerland
333,021 people lived in Basel in 2025. It is the 1722nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Switzerland.
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 Basel'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 Basel grew
Count 10 people in Basel in 1975 and the same count gives 15 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 343,914 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1985 and 1990.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Basel through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Basel in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Switzerland · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 17 cities in Switzerland in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Zurich. The ringed dot in colour is Basel; 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, Basel covered 90 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 19 km² of it. That is 58 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.1 times its size, and its people have grown by 50%.
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 Switzerland
Its share of Switzerland
Of every 100 people in Switzerland in 2025, 4 lived in Basel, which is 333,021 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Switzerland, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Basel's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1718 Xuanhua China333,650
- 1719 Sikar India333,509
- 1720 Garissa Kenya333,505
- 1721 Gwagwalada Nigeria333,464
- 1722 Basel333,021
- 1723 Nicosia Cyprus333,008
- 1724 Rudrapur India332,826
- 1725 Rio Branco Brazil332,810
- 1726 Sasaram India332,715
In Switzerland, 2025
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 Basel 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 Basel 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