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Deir el-Balah, 
Palestine
319,915 people lived in Deir el-Balah in 2025. It is the 1799th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 5th largest in Palestine.
Like every city on this site, Deir el-Balah 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 Deir el-Balah grew
Where Deir el-Balah had 10 people in 1990, it had 37.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 572,843 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2015 and 2020. The UN first counts it as a city in 1990, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Deir el-Balah through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Deir el-Balah in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Palestine · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Deir el-Balah is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Palestine in 2025, 13 in all, led by East Jerusalem, 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, Deir el-Balah covered 46 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 10 km² of it. That is 31 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown to 2.5 times its size, and its people are 3.8 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 Palestine
Its share of Palestine
Of every 100 people in Palestine in 2025, 6 lived in Deir el-Balah, which is 319,915 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Palestine; the coloured squares live in Deir el-Balah. 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
- 1795 Ranipet India320,233
- 1796 Aksu China320,179
- 1797 Catia La Mar [La Guaira] Venezuela320,109
- 1798 Balurghat India319,934
- 1799 Deir el-Balah319,915
- 1800 Raichur India319,647
- 1801 Timișoara Romania319,240
- 1802 Armenia Colombia319,234
- 1803 Zhangqiu China319,153
In Palestine, 2025
- 467 East Jerusalem1,105,567
- 494 Gaza1,038,285
- 905 Khan Yunis601,421
- 1396 Hebron405,079
- 1799 Deir el-Balah319,915
- 2888 Nablus206,378
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 Deir el-Balah are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 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 Deir el-Balah 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