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Cities · Bangladesh · capital
Dhaka, 
Bangladesh
36,585,479 people lived in Dhaka in 2025. It is the 2nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Bangladesh, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Dhaka governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Dhaka grew
Count 10 people in Dhaka in 1975 and the same count gives 72.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 52.1 million people in 2050. It passed ten million people between 1985 and 1990.
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
Dhaka through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Dhaka in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Bangladesh · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 233 cities in Bangladesh in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Dhaka; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Dhaka covered 6,812 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 456 km² of it. That is 12 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 6 times its size, and its people are 7.3 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 Bangladesh
Its share of Bangladesh
Of every 100 people in Bangladesh in 2025, 21 lived in Dhaka, which is 36.6 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Bangladesh, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Dhaka's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1 Jakarta Indonesia41,913,860
- 2 Dhaka36,585,479
- 3 Tokyo Japan33,412,512
- 4 New Delhi India30,222,405
- 5 Shanghai China29,558,908
- 6 Guangzhou China27,563,372
In Bangladesh, 2025
- 2 Dhaka36,585,479
- 83 Chattogram4,983,553
- 133 Savar3,557,381
- 169 Brahmanbaria2,914,727
- 387 Kishoreganj1,324,096
- 409 Sylhet1,242,548
- 475 Khulna1,074,134
- 488 Kutubdia1,053,339
- 560 Chandanaish928,788
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 Dhaka 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 Dhaka 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