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Cox's Bazar, 
Bangladesh
470,100 people lived in Cox's Bazar in 2025. It is the 1182nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 18th largest in Bangladesh.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Cox's Bazar 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 Cox's Bazar grew
Count 10 people in Cox's Bazar in 1975 and the same count gives 37.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 735,067 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2000 and 2005.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Cox's Bazar through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Cox's Bazar in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Bangladesh · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Bangladesh and its 233 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Dhaka). Cox's Bazar 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, Cox's Bazar covered 98 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 6.8 km² of it. That is 14 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 6.2 times its size, and its people are 3.4 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 Bangladesh
Its share of Bangladesh
Of every 1,000 people in Bangladesh in 2025, 3 lived in Cox's Bazar, which is 470,100 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Bangladesh, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Cox's Bazar's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1178 Chuxiong China471,251
- 1179 Huancayo Peru470,685
- 1180 Kemerovo Russia470,175
- 1181 Faqous Egypt470,110
- 1182 Cox's Bazar470,100
- 1183 Sitapur India469,750
- 1184 Lüliang China469,647
- 1185 Tétouan Morocco469,642
- 1186 Kurnool India468,997
In Bangladesh, 2025
- 842 Rangpur641,327
- 893 Chapainawabganj607,924
- 950 Jashore578,026
- 1095 Belkuchi505,615
- 1182 Cox's Bazar470,100
- 1211 Elenga459,645
- 1215 Barishal457,323
- 1245 Sirajganj446,632
- 1251 Tangail444,219
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Cox's Bazar 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 Cox's Bazar 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