Topics
Duhok, 
Iraq
969,701 people lived in Duhok in 2025. It is the 535th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 9th largest in Iraq.
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.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Duhok grew
For every 10 people in Duhok in 1995, there were 136.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.7 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2025 and 2030. The UN first counts it as a city in 1995, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Duhok through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Duhok in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Iraq · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 88 cities in Iraq in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Baghdad. The ringed dot in colour is Duhok; 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, Duhok covered 81 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 17 km² of it. That is 17 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1995, its built-up land has grown to 6.3 times its size, and its people are 13.7 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 Iraq
Its share of Iraq
Of every 100 people in Iraq in 2025, 2 lived in Duhok, which is 969,701 people.
How to read this: shrink Iraq to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Duhok; 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
- 531 Guilin China973,970
- 532 Malanje Angola973,086
- 533 Glasgow United Kingdom970,320
- 534 Baoding China970,162
- 535 Duhok969,701
- 536 Xiangyang China969,011
- 537 Fushan China968,359
- 538 Zanzibar City Tanzania966,642
- 539 Dharwad India965,667
In Iraq, 2025
- 403 Al-Najaf1,273,450
- 444 Kirkuk1,153,160
- 486 Al Hillah1,055,267
- 501 Karbala1,022,893
- 535 Duhok969,701
- 569 Sulaymaniyah907,815
- 577 Ad Diwaniyah894,478
- 645 Zakho814,526
- 647 Nasiriyah813,799
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 Duhok are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1995 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 Duhok 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