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Gothenburg, 
Sweden
562,945 people lived in Gothenburg in 2025. It is the 973rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Sweden.
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 Gothenburg grew
Where Gothenburg had 10 people in 1975, it had 13.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 625,359 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
Gothenburg through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Gothenburg in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Sweden · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 17 cities in Sweden in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Stockholm. The ringed dot in colour is Gothenburg; 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, Gothenburg covered 166 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 30 km² of it. That is 53 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 64%, and its people have grown by 34%.
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 Sweden
Its share of Sweden
Of every 100 people in Sweden in 2025, 5 lived in Gothenburg, which is 562,945 people.
How to read this: shrink Sweden to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Gothenburg; 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
- 969 Mỹ Tho Vietnam565,906
- 970 Kahramanmaraş Türkiye565,732
- 971 Baguio Philippines565,522
- 972 Ondo Nigeria564,330
- 973 Gothenburg562,945
- 974 Shengze China562,800
- 975 Sultanpur India562,032
- 976 Al Minya Egypt561,945
- 977 Denizli Türkiye561,327
In Sweden, 2025
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 Gothenburg 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 Gothenburg 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