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Catania, 
Italy
453,376 people lived in Catania in 2025. It is the 1229th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 7th largest in Italy.
Like every city on this site, Catania 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 Catania grew
Catania had about as many people in 2025 as in 1975.
On the UN's projection it will have 388,656 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
Catania through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Catania in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Italy · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 95 cities in Italy in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Naples. The ringed dot in colour is Catania; 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, Catania covered 108 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 23 km² of it. That is 51 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 54%, and its people are about 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 Italy
Its share of Italy
Of every 1,000 people in Italy in 2025, 8 lived in Catania, which is 453,376 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Italy, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Catania's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1225 Sadiqabad Pakistan454,465
- 1226 Surrey Canada454,230
- 1227 Nantes France453,523
- 1228 Chimoio Mozambique453,521
- 1229 Catania453,376
- 1230 Shashamane Ethiopia452,945
- 1231 Maturin Venezuela452,835
- 1232 Jiangyang China452,500
- 1233 Polokwane South Africa451,786
In Italy, 2025
- 207 Rome2,376,474
- 447 Turin1,150,975
- 812 Palermo667,442
- 1042 Genoa532,509
- 1229 Catania453,376
- 1253 Bologna443,849
- 1298 Florence430,806
- 1426 Bergamo398,050
- 1893 Busto Arsizio302,759
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Catania 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 Catania 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