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Cebu City, 
Philippines
3,044,564 people lived in Cebu City in 2025. It is the 163rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in the Philippines.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Cebu City 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 Cebu City grew
Count 10 people in Cebu City in 1975 and the same count gives 54.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.7 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1985 and 1990.
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
Cebu City through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Cebu City in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Philippines · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 114 cities in the Philippines in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Manila. The ringed dot in colour is Cebu City; 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, Cebu City covered 420 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 66 km² of it. That is 22 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.2 times its size, and its people are 5.4 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 the Philippines
Its share of the Philippines
Of every 100 people in the Philippines in 2025, 3 lived in Cebu City, which is 3.0 million people.
How to read this: shrink the Philippines to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Cebu City; 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
- 159 Gujranwala Pakistan3,121,271
- 160 Athens Greece3,101,979
- 161 Ningbo China3,094,833
- 162 Kollam India3,074,562
- 163 Cebu City3,044,564
- 164 Shijiazhuang China2,990,397
- 165 Multan Pakistan2,956,642
- 166 Thiruvananthapuram India2,946,119
- 167 Asansol India2,924,741
In the Philippines, 2025
- 8 Manila24,735,305
- 163 Cebu City3,044,564
- 322 Davao City1,546,026
- 350 Angeles1,445,721
- 545 Dagupan [Lingayen]953,092
- 601 Cagayan de Oro870,291
- 750 Iloilo City717,038
- 828 Bacolod655,836
- 880 Lipa614,898
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 Cebu City 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 Cebu City 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