Topics
Doha, 
Qatar
Ad-Dawhah
2,193,708 people lived in Doha in 2025. It is the 230th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Qatar, where it is the capital.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
In its own language: Ad-Dawhah.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Doha grew
Count 10 people in Doha in 1985 and the same count gives 272.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.8 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2005 and 2010. The UN first counts it as a city in 1985, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Doha through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Doha in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Qatar · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Qatar and its 5 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Doha is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Doha covered 385 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 118 km² of it. That is 54 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 11.9 times its size, and its people are 27.3 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 Qatar
Its share of Qatar
Of every 100 people in Qatar in 2025, 70 lived in Doha, which is 2.2 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Qatar, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Doha's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 226 Fukuoka Japan2,225,078
- 227 Meerut India2,209,886
- 228 Barranquilla Colombia2,208,021
- 229 Macau - Zhuhai Macao2,203,065
- 230 Doha2,193,708
- 231 Kaohsiung Taiwan2,187,455
- 232 Las Vegas United States2,183,655
- 233 Belém Brazil2,180,454
- 234 Cixi China2,177,489
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Doha are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1985 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 Doha 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