Topics
Cape Town, 
India
770,260 people lived in Cape Town in 2025. It is the 692nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 109th largest in India.
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 Cape Town's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Cape Town grew
For every 10 people in Cape Town in 1975, there were 26.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 793,934 people in 2050.
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
Cape Town through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Cape Town in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
India · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Cape Town is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of India in 2025, 2,054 in all, led by New Delhi, 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, Cape Town covered 59 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 13 km² of it. That is 16 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.3 times its size, and its people are 2.7 times as many.
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 India
Its share of India
Of every 1,000 people in India in 2025, 1 lived in Cape Town, which is 770,260 people.
How to read this: shrink India to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Cape Town; 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
- 688 Evaton South Africa773,229
- 689 Amravati771,610
- 690 Saratov Russia771,355
- 691 Chihuahua Mexico771,297
- 692 Cape Town770,260
- 693 Nanded770,215
- 694 Eskisehir Türkiye766,333
- 695 Yiwu China766,253
- 696 Liupanshui China766,243
In India, 2025
- 680 Jalgaon781,486
- 683 Rourkela776,631
- 685 Kharagpur776,133
- 689 Amravati771,610
- 692 Cape Town770,260
- 693 Nanded770,215
- 699 Sangli761,451
- 703 Agartala758,699
- 712 Kalaburagi753,963
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 Cape Town 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 Cape Town 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