Topics
Budapest, 
Hungary
1,609,260 people lived in Budapest in 2025. It is the 304th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Hungary, where it is the capital.
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 Budapest grew
For every 10 people in Budapest in 1975, there were 8.8 in 2025: it shrank.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.5 million people in 2050.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Budapest through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Budapest in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Hungary · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 13 cities in Hungary in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Budapest; 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, Budapest covered 332 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 83 km² of it. That is 52 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 37%, and its people have fallen by 12%.
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 Hungary
Its share of Hungary
Of every 100 people in Hungary in 2025, 17 lived in Budapest, which is 1.6 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Hungary, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Budapest's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 300 Wuhu China1,631,043
- 301 Zibo China1,620,676
- 302 San Salvador El Salvador1,615,178
- 303 Gaziantep Türkiye1,613,357
- 304 Budapest1,609,260
- 305 Warri Nigeria1,607,702
- 306 Tegucigalpa Honduras1,607,033
- 307 Maharajganj India1,601,258
- 308 Ulaanbaatar Mongolia1,596,556
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 Budapest 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 Budapest 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