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Datong, 
China
1,573,531 people lived in Datong in 2025. It is the 315th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 49th largest in China.
Like every city on this site, Datong is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Datong grew
For every 10 people in Datong in 1975, there were 22.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Datong through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Datong in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Datong is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of China in 2025, 2,082 in all, led by Shanghai, 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, Datong covered 218 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 61 km² of it. That is 39 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 2.2 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in China
Its share of China
Of every 1,000 people in China in 2025, 1 lived in Datong, which is 1.6 million people.
How to read this: shrink China to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Datong; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 311 Ta'izz Yemen1,586,739
- 312 Erbil Iraq1,582,829
- 313 Jabalpur India1,582,131
- 314 Rajkot India1,581,235
- 315 Datong1,573,531
- 316 Uyo Nigeria1,567,115
- 317 Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar India1,567,020
- 318 Cirebon Indonesia1,566,821
- 319 Nouakchott Mauritania1,561,617
In China, 2025
- 284 Luoyang1,727,744
- 291 Nantong1,684,417
- 300 Wuhu1,631,043
- 301 Zibo1,620,676
- 315 Datong1,573,531
- 340 Baotou1,491,964
- 341 Anyang1,489,112
- 343 Taizhou1,483,994
- 347 Xiuying District1,458,377
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 Datong 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 Datong 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