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Gayara, 
Iraq
242,690 people lived in Gayara in 2025. It is the 2413th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 23rd largest in Iraq.
Like every city on this site, Gayara 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 Gayara grew
Where Gayara had 10 people in 2010, it had 45.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 535,946 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2025 and 2030. The UN first counts it as a city in 2010, 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
Gayara through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Gayara 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 Gayara; 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, Gayara covered 40 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 4.9 km² of it. That is 20 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 2010, its built-up land has grown to 4.9 times its size, and its people are 4.6 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 1,000 people in Iraq in 2025, 5 lived in Gayara, which is 242,690 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Iraq; the coloured squares live in Gayara. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 2408 Dapaong Togo242,985
- 2409 Pokhariya Nepal242,966
- 2410 Kambove Democratic Republic of the Congo242,939
- 2412 Poltava Ukraine242,753
- 2413 Gayara242,690
- 2414 Khajauli India242,567
- 2417 Kannauj India242,353
- 2419 Monclova Mexico242,237
- 2421 Boma Democratic Republic of the Congo242,042
In Iraq, 2025
- 1443 As Samawah393,865
- 1586 Fallujah359,695
- 1870 Al-Shatrah307,652
- 2376 Shorsh245,565
- 2413 Gayara242,690
- 2464 Tal Afar237,454
- 2674 Az Zubayr220,737
- 2894 Suq al Shyukh206,015
- 3169 Abu Gharaq189,692
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Gayara are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 2010 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 Gayara 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