Topics
Brussels, 
Belgium
Bruxelles
1,406,499 people lived in Brussels in 2025. It is the 358th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Belgium, 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 Brussels's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
In its own language: Bruxelles.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Brussels grew
Count 10 people in Brussels in 1975 and the same count gives 15.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.4 million people in 2050. It passed a million 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
Brussels through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Brussels in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Belgium · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Belgium and its 16 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Brussels 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, Brussels covered 214 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 58 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 by 63%, and its people have grown by 53%.
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 Belgium
Its share of Belgium
Of every 100 people in Belgium in 2025, 12 lived in Brussels, which is 1.4 million people.
How to read this: shrink Belgium to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Brussels; 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
- 354 Medina Saudi Arabia1,432,287
- 355 Aba Nigeria1,428,069
- 356 Al Zaqaziq Egypt1,416,734
- 357 Asyut Egypt1,406,963
- 358 Brussels1,406,499
- 359 Seattle United States1,403,495
- 360 Xuzhou China1,402,001
- 361 Niamey Niger1,401,149
- 362 Liuzhou China1,400,880
In Belgium, 2025
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 Brussels 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 Brussels 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