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Fort Lauderdale, 
United States
1,368,027 people lived in Fort Lauderdale in 2025. It is the 370th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 22nd largest in the United States.
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 Fort Lauderdale grew
Where Fort Lauderdale had 10 people in 1980, it had 70.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.7 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2005 and 2010. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, 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
Fort Lauderdale through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Fort Lauderdale in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Fort Lauderdale is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of the United States in 2025, 348 in all, led by New York City, 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, Fort Lauderdale covered 628 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 174 km² of it. That is 127 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 11 by 11 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 6.6 times its size, and its people are 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 the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 1,000 people in the United States in 2025, 4 lived in Fort Lauderdale, which is 1.4 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in the United States, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Fort Lauderdale's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 366 Valencia Spain1,390,045
- 367 Aboh Nigeria1,374,320
- 368 Abuja Nigeria1,373,722
- 369 Thrissur India1,371,675
- 370 Fort Lauderdale1,368,027
- 371 León Mexico1,367,521
- 372 Xining China1,360,245
- 373 Fez Morocco1,359,989
- 374 Vijayawada India1,351,098
In the United States, 2025
- 337 Oakland1,503,319
- 359 Seattle1,403,495
- 363 Mesa1,398,369
- 364 Portland1,397,788
- 370 Fort Lauderdale1,368,027
- 451 Baltimore1,145,219
- 466 Minneapolis [Saint Paul]1,107,243
- 595 Saint Petersburg877,183
- 653 Detroit809,894
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 Fort Lauderdale are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 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 Fort Lauderdale 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