Topics
Erbil, 
Iraq
1,582,829 people lived in Erbil in 2025. It is the 312th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in Iraq.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Erbil's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Erbil grew
For every 10 people in Erbil in 1975, there were 39.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2005 and 2010.
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
Erbil through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Erbil 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 Erbil; 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, Erbil covered 238 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 54 km² of it. That is 34 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.7 times its size, and its people are 4 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 Iraq
Its share of Iraq
Of every 100 people in Iraq in 2025, 3 lived in Erbil, which is 1.6 million 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 Erbil; 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
- 308 Ulaanbaatar Mongolia1,596,556
- 309 Havana Cuba1,593,580
- 310 Hargeisa Somalia1,593,542
- 311 Ta'izz Yemen1,586,739
- 312 Erbil1,582,829
- 313 Jabalpur India1,582,131
- 314 Rajkot India1,581,235
- 315 Datong China1,573,531
- 316 Uyo Nigeria1,567,115
In Iraq, 2025
- 63 Baghdad6,390,735
- 241 Basra2,033,553
- 293 Mosul1,665,214
- 312 Erbil1,582,829
- 403 Al-Najaf1,273,450
- 444 Kirkuk1,153,160
- 486 Al Hillah1,055,267
- 501 Karbala1,022,893
- 535 Duhok969,701
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 Erbil 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 Erbil 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