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Daejeon, 
South Korea
1,517,299 people lived in Daejeon in 2025. It is the 331st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in South Korea.
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 Daejeon'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 Daejeon grew
For every 10 people in Daejeon in 1975, there were 33.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.4 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1990 and 1995.
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
Daejeon through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Daejeon in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
South Korea · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Daejeon 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, Daejeon covered 204 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 47 km² of it. That is 31 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.9 times its size, and its people are 3.3 times as many.
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 South Korea
Its share of South Korea
Of every 100 people in South Korea in 2025, 3 lived in Daejeon, which is 1.5 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in South Korea; the coloured squares live in Daejeon. 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
- 327 Panama City Panama1,527,393
- 328 Brasília Brazil1,521,148
- 329 Dallas United States1,521,118
- 330 Gorakhpur India1,519,206
- 331 Daejeon1,517,299
- 332 Jodhpur India1,515,910
- 333 Sacramento United States1,514,661
- 334 Austin United States1,513,032
- 335 Toluca Mexico1,505,035
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 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 Daejeon 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 Daejeon 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