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Chișinău, 
Moldova
422,035 people lived in Chișinău in 2025. It is the 1330th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Moldova, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Chișinău 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 Chișinău grew
For every 10 people in Chișinău in 1975, there were 8.6 in 2025: it shrank.
On the UN's projection it will have 373,909 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
Chișinău through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Chișinău in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Moldova · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 5 cities in Moldova in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Chișinău; 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, Chișinău covered 101 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 23 km² of it. That is 55 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 48%, and its people have fallen by 14%.
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 Moldova
Its share of Moldova
Of every 100 people in Moldova in 2025, 14 lived in Chișinău, which is 422,035 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Moldova, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Chișinău's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1326 Niigata Japan422,238
- 1327 Jijiga Ethiopia422,225
- 1328 Longyan China422,165
- 1329 Tucson United States422,107
- 1330 Chișinău422,035
- 1331 Bathinda India421,753
- 1332 Bida Nigeria421,605
- 1333 Raiwind Pakistan421,524
- 1334 Tete Mozambique421,174
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 Chișinău 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 Chișinău 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