Topics
Beirut, 
Lebanon
Bayrūt
1,794,019 people lived in Beirut in 2025. It is the 276th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Lebanon, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Beirut governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
In its own language: Bayrūt.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Beirut grew
Beirut had about as many people in 2025 as in 1975.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.1 million people in 2050.
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
Beirut through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Beirut in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Lebanon · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 9 cities in Lebanon in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Beirut; 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, Beirut covered 216 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 46 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 2.1 times its size, and its people are about 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 Lebanon
Its share of Lebanon
Of every 100 people in Lebanon in 2025, 31 lived in Beirut, which is 1.8 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Lebanon; the coloured squares live in Beirut. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 272 Isfahan Iran1,844,409
- 273 Pretoria South Africa1,836,166
- 274 Ranchi India1,819,944
- 275 Munich Germany1,815,022
- 276 Beirut1,794,019
- 277 Yinchuan China1,792,788
- 278 Xiamen City China1,788,492
- 279 Handan China1,777,172
- 280 Hamburg Germany1,759,377
In Lebanon, 2025
- 276 Beirut1,794,019
- 1502 Tripoli377,937
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 Beirut 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 Beirut 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