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Cuenca, 
Ecuador
482,272 people lived in Cuenca in 2025. It is the 1149th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Ecuador.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Cuenca's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Cuenca grew
Count 10 people in Cuenca in 1975 and the same count gives 41.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 540,234 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1990 and 1995.
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
Cuenca through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Cuenca in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ecuador · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Ecuador and its 32 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Guayaquil). Cuenca 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, Cuenca covered 89 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 21 km² of it. That is 44 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3 times its size, and its people are 4.1 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 Ecuador
Its share of Ecuador
Of every 100 people in Ecuador in 2025, 3 lived in Cuenca, which is 482,272 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Ecuador; the coloured squares live in Cuenca. 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
- 1145 Kagoshima Japan484,164
- 1146 Dire Dawa Ethiopia483,674
- 1147 Huzhou China483,361
- 1148 Yar Hussain Pakistan483,239
- 1149 Cuenca482,272
- 1150 Tahta Egypt482,194
- 1151 At Ta'if Saudi Arabia481,818
- 1152 Villahermosa Mexico481,525
- 1153 Rizhao China481,315
In Ecuador, 2025
- 157 Guayaquil3,157,825
- 197 Quito2,534,914
- 1149 Cuenca482,272
- 1594 Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas356,829
- 2026 Manta287,756
- 2110 Ambato274,672
- 2243 Salinas [Santa Elena]260,161
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 Cuenca 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 Cuenca 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