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Cities · Kyrgyzstan · capital
Bishkek, 
Kyrgyzstan
1,343,048 people lived in Bishkek in 2025. It is the 378th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Kyrgyzstan, where it is the capital.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Bishkek's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Bishkek grew
Where Bishkek had 10 people in 1975, it had 23.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Bishkek through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Bishkek in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Kyrgyzstan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Bishkek is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Kyrgyzstan in 2025, 12 in all, 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, Bishkek covered 150 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 54 km² of it. That is 40 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.3 times its size, and its people are 2.3 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in Kyrgyzstan
Its share of Kyrgyzstan
Of every 100 people in Kyrgyzstan in 2025, 18 lived in Bishkek, which is 1.3 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Kyrgyzstan; the coloured squares live in Bishkek. 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
- 374 Vijayawada India1,351,098
- 375 Huaiyin District China1,349,827
- 376 Tiruchirappalli India1,349,040
- 377 Cochabamba Bolivia1,346,672
- 378 Bishkek1,343,048
- 379 Mysuru India1,342,126
- 380 Salem India1,337,000
- 381 Novosibirsk Russia1,331,432
- 382 Purwokerto Indonesia1,331,010
In Kyrgyzstan, 2025
- 378 Bishkek1,343,048
- 1118 Osh495,400
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 Bishkek 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 Bishkek 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