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Dresden, 
Germany
554,612 people lived in Dresden in 2025. It is the 989th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 14th largest in Germany.
Like every city on this site, Dresden 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 Dresden grew
Dresden had about as many people in 2025 as in 1975.
On the UN's projection it will have 524,359 people in 2050.
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
Dresden through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Dresden in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Germany · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Dresden is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Germany in 2025, 100 in all, led by Berlin, 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, Dresden covered 159 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 35 km² of it. That is 63 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 52%, and its people are about 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 Germany
Its share of Germany
Of every 1,000 people in Germany in 2025, 7 lived in Dresden, which is 554,612 people.
How to read this: shrink Germany to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Dresden; 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
- 985 Shangrao China556,394
- 986 Malacca City Malaysia555,703
- 987 Ambon Indonesia555,651
- 988 Yitang China555,576
- 989 Dresden554,612
- 990 Tabuk Saudi Arabia553,389
- 991 Rampur India553,229
- 992 M'bour Senegal553,170
- 993 Yaroslavl Russia553,086
In Germany, 2025
- 717 Dortmund748,106
- 820 Wuppertal662,663
- 837 Nuremberg644,169
- 887 Hanover611,288
- 989 Dresden554,612
- 1017 Leipzig542,313
- 1241 Mannheim448,203
- 1309 Wiesbaden427,270
- 1325 Bremen422,414
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 Dresden 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 Dresden 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