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Cangnan, 
China
308,925 people lived in Cangnan in 2025. It is the 1865th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 344th largest in China.
Like every city on this site, Cangnan is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Cangnan grew
Where Cangnan had 10 people in 1975, it had 21.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 303,054 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2005 and 2010.
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
Cangnan through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Cangnan in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: China and its 2,082 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Shanghai). Cangnan 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, Cangnan covered 33 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 6.9 km² of it. That is 22 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 6.3 times its size, and its people have grown by 90%.
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 China
Its share of China
Fewer than 1 in every 1,000 people in China lived in Cangnan in 2025 — about 1 in 4,545.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1861 Moshi Tanzania309,202
- 1862 Xichang309,170
- 1863 Madhepura India309,065
- 1864 Nagasaki Japan308,986
- 1865 Cangnan308,925
- 1866 Qoqand Uzbekistan308,393
- 1867 Jacobabad Pakistan308,137
- 1868 Tonghua308,016
- 1869 Ciudad Bolivar Venezuela307,794
In China, 2025
- 1835 Lufeng312,588
- 1853 Emeishan310,503
- 1858 Huairou309,856
- 1862 Xichang309,170
- 1865 Cangnan308,925
- 1868 Tonghua308,016
- 1872 Jinshan307,246
- 1879 Cenxi306,146
- 1884 Gaoming304,429
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 Cangnan 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 Cangnan 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