Topics
Copenhagen, 
Denmark
København
1,229,370 people lived in Copenhagen in 2025. It is the 416th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Denmark, where it is the capital.
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.
In its own language: København.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Copenhagen grew
For every 10 people in Copenhagen in 1975, there were 11.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.3 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2005 and 2010.
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
Copenhagen through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Copenhagen in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Denmark · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Denmark and its 5 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Copenhagen 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, Copenhagen covered 292 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 66 km² of it. That is 54 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 25%, and its people have grown by 19%.
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 Denmark
Its share of Denmark
Of every 100 people in Denmark in 2025, 20 lived in Copenhagen, which is 1.2 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Denmark, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Copenhagen's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 412 Gyanpur India1,237,249
- 413 Amsterdam Netherlands1,235,985
- 414 Zhangzhou China1,232,911
- 415 Kota India1,232,364
- 416 Copenhagen1,229,370
- 417 Torreón Mexico1,227,850
- 418 Liverpool United Kingdom1,227,470
- 419 Vitória Brazil1,226,500
- 420 Maiduguri Nigeria1,225,505
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 Copenhagen 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 Copenhagen 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