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Cancún, 
Mexico
637,532 people lived in Cancún in 2025. It is the 845th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 22nd largest in Mexico.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Cancún governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Cancún grew
For every 10 people in Cancún in 1985, there were 116.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 707,700 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1990 and 1995. The UN first counts it as a city in 1985, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Cancún through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Cancún in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Mexico · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Mexico and its 186 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Mexico City). Cancún 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, Cancún covered 87 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 25 km² of it. That is 40 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 6.5 times its size, and its people are 11.7 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 Mexico
Its share of Mexico
Of every 1,000 people in Mexico in 2025, 5 lived in Cancún, which is 637,532 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Mexico, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Cancún's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 841 Bauchi Nigeria642,082
- 842 Rangpur Bangladesh641,327
- 843 Kumamoto Japan641,185
- 844 Magelang Indonesia640,707
- 845 Cancún637,532
- 846 Jiangyin China637,502
- 847 Morelia637,430
- 848 Jeonju South Korea637,082
- 849 Mianyang China636,781
In Mexico, 2025
- 728 Saltillo737,662
- 765 Culiacán701,609
- 768 Acapulco699,888
- 811 Veracruz668,350
- 845 Cancún637,532
- 847 Morelia637,430
- 877 Reynosa615,168
- 901 Tampico603,035
- 947 Tuxtla Gutiérrez580,878
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 Cancún are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1985 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 Cancún 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