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Cities · Timor-Leste · capital
Dili, 
Timor-Leste
345,038 people lived in Dili in 2025. It is the 1660th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Timor-Leste, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Dili 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 Dili grew
Where Dili had 10 people in 1975, it had 45.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 417,966 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Dili through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Dili in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Timor-Leste · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Dili is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Timor-Leste in 2025, 1 in all, 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, Dili covered 46 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 9.4 km² of it. That is 27 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 92%, and its people are 4.5 times as many.
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 Timor-Leste
Its share of Timor-Leste
Of every 100 people in Timor-Leste in 2025, 24 lived in Dili, which is 345,038 people.
How to read this: shrink Timor-Leste to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Dili; 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
- 1656 Ras Al Khaimah United Arab Emirates345,621
- 1657 Bukalasi Uganda345,288
- 1658 Ngaoundéré Cameroon345,148
- 1659 Jamalpur Bangladesh345,132
- 1660 Dili345,038
- 1661 Guankou China344,468
- 1662 Augsburg Germany344,255
- 1663 Kansas City United States344,125
- 1664 Etah India344,002
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 Dili 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 Dili 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