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General Santos, 
Philippines
498,098 people lived in General Santos in 2025. It is the 1110th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 12th largest in the Philippines.
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 General Santos grew
For every 10 people in General Santos in 1975, there were 70.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 598,952 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1985 and 1990.
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
General Santos through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in General Santos in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Philippines · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: the Philippines and its 114 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Manila). General Santos is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, General Santos covered 106 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 19 km² of it. That is 38 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.4 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 Philippines
Its share of the Philippines
Of every 1,000 people in the Philippines in 2025, 4 lived in General Santos, which is 498,098 people.
How to read this: shrink the Philippines to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in General Santos; 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
- 1106 Anshun China499,794
- 1107 Bahir Dar Ethiopia498,735
- 1108 Naberezhnye Chelny Russia498,625
- 1109 Hamedan Iran498,337
- 1110 General Santos498,098
- 1111 Vũng Tàu Vietnam498,010
- 1112 Balung Indonesia497,754
- 1113 Khamis Mushayt Saudi Arabia497,246
- 1114 Yangjiang China496,608
In the Philippines, 2025
- 828 Bacolod655,836
- 880 Lipa614,898
- 971 Baguio565,522
- 1081 Zamboanga City513,813
- 1110 General Santos498,098
- 1357 Batangas City415,103
- 1676 Iligan341,172
- 1689 Naga338,596
- 1777 Lucena323,308
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 General Santos 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 General Santos 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