Topics
Bucharest, 
Romania
București
1,909,536 people lived in Bucharest in 2025. It is the 262nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Romania, 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 Bucharest's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
In its own language: București.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Bucharest grew
For every 10 people in Bucharest in 1975, there were 11 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.8 million people in 2050.
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
Bucharest through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Bucharest in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Romania · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Bucharest is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Romania in 2025, 29 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, Bucharest covered 240 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 66 km² of it. That is 35 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 64%, and its people have grown by 10%.
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 Romania
Its share of Romania
Of every 100 people in Romania in 2025, 10 lived in Bucharest, which is 1.9 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Romania, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Bucharest's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 258 Beni Democratic Republic of the Congo1,923,700
- 259 Tarogong Indonesia1,917,036
- 260 San Diego United States1,915,114
- 261 Lisbon Portugal1,913,798
- 262 Bucharest1,909,536
- 263 Sialkot Pakistan1,907,978
- 264 Bibhutpur India1,904,411
- 265 Malang Indonesia1,899,616
- 266 Kaduna Nigeria1,890,448
In Romania, 2025
- 262 Bucharest1,909,536
- 1801 Timișoara319,240
- 1848 Cluj-Napoca310,650
- 2104 Iași275,840
- 2169 Constanța268,757
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 Bucharest 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 Bucharest 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