Topics
Basra, 
Iraq
2,033,553 people lived in Basra in 2025. It is the 241st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Iraq.
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 Basra grew
Where Basra had 10 people in 1975, it had 58.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.8 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2000 and 2005.
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
Basra through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Basra 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 Basra; 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, Basra covered 204 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 52 km² of it. That is 25 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.3 times its size, and its people are 5.8 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, 4 lived in Basra, which is 2.0 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Iraq, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Basra's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 237 Palembang Indonesia2,132,576
- 238 Harare Zimbabwe2,117,195
- 239 Banha Egypt2,088,520
- 240 Rabat Morocco2,069,287
- 241 Basra2,033,553
- 242 Vienna Austria2,031,326
- 243 Maracaibo Venezuela2,030,633
- 244 La Paz Bolivia2,024,413
- 245 Dhanbad India2,020,181
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: the number before each name is its place among all 12,138 cities in the world in 2025; bars are people, on one scale per list. Only cities that reach 300,000 people have a page here, so a gap in the numbers is a smaller city.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Basra 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 Basra 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