Topics
Glasgow, 
United Kingdom
970,320 people lived in Glasgow in 2025. It is the 533rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 6th largest in the United Kingdom.
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 Glasgow'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 Glasgow grew
Where Glasgow had 10 people in 1975, it had 9.5 in 2025, fewer than it started with.
On the UN's projection it will have 987,250 people in 2050.
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
Glasgow through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Glasgow in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United Kingdom · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: the United Kingdom and its 150 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is London). Glasgow 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, Glasgow covered 297 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 70 km² of it. That is 72 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 46%, and its people have fallen by 5%.
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 the United Kingdom
Its share of the United Kingdom
Of every 100 people in the United Kingdom in 2025, 1 lived in Glasgow, which is 970,320 people.
How to read this: shrink the United Kingdom to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Glasgow; 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
- 529 Arequipa Peru977,496
- 530 Omsk Russia975,485
- 531 Guilin China973,970
- 532 Malanje Angola973,086
- 533 Glasgow970,320
- 534 Baoding China970,162
- 535 Duhok Iraq969,701
- 536 Xiangyang China969,011
- 537 Fushan China968,359
In the United Kingdom, 2025
- 191 Birmingham2,631,757
- 196 Manchester2,535,427
- 418 Liverpool1,227,470
- 480 Leeds1,065,607
- 533 Glasgow970,320
- 700 Newcastle upon Tyne760,969
- 835 Nottingham649,610
- 875 Bristol615,703
- 1001 Sheffield549,695
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 Glasgow 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 Glasgow 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