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Charikar, 
Afghanistan
227,054 people lived in Charikar in 2025. It is the 2592nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 10th largest in Afghanistan.
Like every city on this site, Charikar 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 Charikar grew
For every 10 people in Charikar in 1975, there were 27.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 395,906 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2025 and 2030.
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
Charikar through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Charikar in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Afghanistan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Charikar is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Afghanistan in 2025, 85 in all, led by Kabul, 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, Charikar covered 20 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 3.4 km² of it. That is 15 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 2005, its built-up land has grown to 3.4 times its size, and its people have grown by 52%.
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 Afghanistan
Its share of Afghanistan
Of every 1,000 people in Afghanistan in 2025, 5 lived in Charikar, which is 227,054 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Afghanistan; the coloured squares live in Charikar. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 2582 Binhai China227,533
- 2583 Petrozavodsk Russia227,487
- 2586 Hihya Egypt227,360
- 2589 Kazipur Bangladesh227,234
- 2592 Charikar227,054
- 2598 Bahawalnagar Pakistan226,415
- 2599 Arua Uganda226,390
- 2600 Maghagha Egypt226,358
- 2605 Sevastopol Ukraine226,028
In Afghanistan, 2025
- 2003 Taloqan290,028
- 2028 Kunduz287,295
- 2560 Maymana229,355
- 2574 Puli Khumri228,271
- 2592 Charikar227,054
- 2776 Shindand213,596
- 2915 Firozkoh204,753
- 3080 Fayzabad195,148
- 3153 Toraghundi190,543
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 Charikar 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 Charikar 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