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Beihai, 
China
577,338 people lived in Beihai in 2025. It is the 951st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 171st largest in China.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Beihai governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Beihai grew
For every 10 people in Beihai in 1975, there were 41.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 546,647 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: 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
Beihai through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Beihai in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: China and its 2,082 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Shanghai). Beihai 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, Beihai covered 113 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 24 km² of it. That is 41 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 5.6 times its size, and its people are 4.2 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 China
Its share of China
Fewer than 1 in every 1,000 people in China lived in Beihai in 2025 — about 1 in 2,439.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 947 Tuxtla Gutiérrez Mexico580,878
- 948 Rasht Iran579,481
- 949 Damanhur Egypt579,215
- 950 Jashore Bangladesh578,026
- 951 Beihai577,338
- 952 Binzhou576,823
- 953 Ballia India576,284
- 954 Valledupar Colombia574,824
- 955 Nakuru Kenya574,091
In China, 2025
- 921 Yongchuan590,694
- 925 Weihai589,850
- 935 Loudi585,521
- 936 Cangzhou585,507
- 951 Beihai577,338
- 952 Binzhou576,823
- 974 Shengze562,800
- 982 Yulin558,277
- 983 Yuncheng558,182
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 Beihai 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 Beihai 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