Topics
Beijing, 
China
17,013,303 people lived in Beijing in 2025. It is the 16th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in China, where it is the capital.
Like every city on this site, Beijing is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Beijing grew
Count 10 people in Beijing in 1975 and the same count gives 33 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 18.0 million people in 2050. It passed ten million people between 2000 and 2005.
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
Beijing through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Beijing in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Beijing is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of China in 2025, 2,082 in all, led by Shanghai, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Beijing covered 1,713 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 488 km² of it. That is 29 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.9 times its size, and its people are 3.3 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
Of every 100 people in China in 2025, 1 lived in Beijing, which is 17.0 million people.
How to read this: shrink China to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Beijing; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 12 Mumbai India20,203,056
- 13 São Paulo Brazil18,949,790
- 14 Bangkok Thailand18,180,280
- 15 Mexico City Mexico17,734,212
- 16 Beijing17,013,303
- 17 Lahore Pakistan15,156,430
- 18 Istanbul Türkiye15,014,763
- 19 Moscow Russia14,524,753
- 20 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam14,052,713
In China, 2025
- 5 Shanghai29,558,908
- 6 Guangzhou27,563,372
- 16 Beijing17,013,303
- 23 Shenzhen13,878,396
- 43 Suzhou7,731,101
- 45 Hangzhou7,500,208
- 46 Wuhan7,363,548
- 47 Tianjin7,285,342
- 51 Chongqing7,071,073
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 Beijing 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 Beijing 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