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Changsha, 
China
3,457,508 people lived in Changsha in 2025. It is the 138th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 24th largest in China.
Like every city on this site, Changsha 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 Changsha grew
Where Changsha had 10 people in 1975, it had 28.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.4 million 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
Changsha through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Changsha 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). Changsha 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, Changsha covered 403 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 112 km² of it. That is 32 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.6 times its size, and its people are 2.8 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in China
Its share of China
Of every 1,000 people in China in 2025, 2 lived in Changsha, which is 3.5 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in China, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Changsha's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 134 Peshawar Pakistan3,554,423
- 135 Lusaka Zambia3,510,723
- 136 Indore India3,476,423
- 137 Jinan3,472,980
- 138 Changsha3,457,508
- 139 Medellín Colombia3,350,384
- 140 Changchun3,349,934
- 141 Patna India3,309,383
- 142 Nanchang3,299,773
In China, 2025
- 113 Puning3,989,322
- 122 Ürümqi3,755,144
- 128 Qingdao3,616,657
- 137 Jinan3,472,980
- 138 Changsha3,457,508
- 140 Changchun3,349,934
- 142 Nanchang3,299,773
- 143 Nanning3,288,636
- 144 Quanzhou3,286,129
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 Changsha 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 Changsha 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