Topics
Chicago, 
United States
3,683,385 people lived in Chicago in 2025. It is the 125th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in the United States.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Chicago grew
For every 10 people in Chicago in 1975, there were 10.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.6 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
Chicago through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Chicago in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 348 cities in the United States in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being New York City. The ringed dot in colour is Chicago; 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, Chicago covered 932 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 272 km² of it. That is 74 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 9 by 9 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 26%, and its people have grown by 7%.
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 the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 100 people in the United States in 2025, 1 lived in Chicago, which is 3.7 million people.
How to read this: shrink the United States to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Chicago; 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
- 121 Owerri Nigeria3,833,343
- 122 Ürümqi China3,755,144
- 123 Ibadan Nigeria3,720,721
- 124 Recife Brazil3,691,196
- 125 Chicago3,683,385
- 126 Brazzaville Republic of the Congo3,656,322
- 127 Melbourne Australia3,639,893
- 128 Qingdao China3,616,657
- 129 Ankara Türkiye3,612,251
In the United States, 2025
- 22 New York City13,920,148
- 27 Los Angeles12,740,420
- 115 Houston3,955,046
- 125 Chicago3,683,385
- 145 Washington, D.C.3,270,018
- 155 San Francisco3,163,486
- 170 Miami2,912,486
- 221 Denver2,265,994
- 225 Philadelphia2,232,420
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 Chicago 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 Chicago 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