Topics
Belém, 
Brazil
2,180,454 people lived in Belém in 2025. It is the 233rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 10th largest in Brazil.
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 Belém grew
For every 10 people in Belém in 1975, there were 30.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.4 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Belém through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Belém in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Brazil · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Brazil and its 356 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is São Paulo). Belém 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, Belém covered 284 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 72 km² of it. That is 33 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2 times its size, and its people are 3 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 Brazil
Its share of Brazil
Of every 100 people in Brazil in 2025, 1 lived in Belém, which is 2.2 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Brazil, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Belém's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 229 Macau - Zhuhai Macao2,203,065
- 230 Doha Qatar2,193,708
- 231 Kaohsiung Taiwan2,187,455
- 232 Las Vegas United States2,183,655
- 233 Belém2,180,454
- 234 Cixi China2,177,489
- 235 San José Costa Rica2,171,213
- 236 Madurai India2,138,746
- 237 Palembang Indonesia2,132,576
In Brazil, 2025
- 158 Salvador3,135,157
- 200 Curitiba2,475,352
- 214 Goiânia2,320,596
- 217 Manaus2,277,352
- 233 Belém2,180,454
- 281 Porto Alegre1,755,917
- 292 Sao Goncalo1,679,246
- 299 Campinas1,631,432
- 328 Brasília1,521,148
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 Belém 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 Belém 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