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Daegu, 
South Korea
2,334,446 people lived in Daegu in 2025. It is the 213th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in South Korea.
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 Daegu grew
Where Daegu had 10 people in 1975, it had 15.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.0 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
Daegu through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Daegu in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
South Korea · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Daegu is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of South Korea in 2025, 49 in all, led by Seoul, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Daegu covered 288 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 76 km² of it. That is 33 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 85%, and its people have grown by 55%.
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 South Korea
Its share of South Korea
Of every 100 people in South Korea in 2025, 5 lived in Daegu, which is 2.3 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in South Korea, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Daegu's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 209 Denpasar Indonesia2,352,734
- 210 Prayagraj India2,347,869
- 211 Port Harcourt Nigeria2,341,445
- 212 Dammam Saudi Arabia2,335,647
- 213 Daegu2,334,446
- 214 Goiânia Brazil2,320,596
- 215 Tangshan China2,286,763
- 216 Bursa Türkiye2,281,622
- 217 Manaus Brazil2,277,352
In South Korea, 2025
- 10 Seoul22,490,482
- 146 Busan3,263,221
- 213 Daegu2,334,446
- 331 Daejeon1,517,299
- 351 Gwangju1,441,495
- 588 Ulsan881,858
- 780 Cheongju-si690,333
- 814 Changwon665,772
- 848 Jeonju637,082
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 Daegu 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 Daegu 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