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Guadalajara, 
Mexico
4,135,440 people lived in Guadalajara in 2025. It is the 108th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Mexico.
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 Guadalajara grew
Where Guadalajara had 10 people in 1975, it had 20.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 4.3 million people in 2050.
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
Guadalajara through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Guadalajara in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Mexico · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Guadalajara is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Mexico in 2025, 186 in all, led by Mexico 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, Guadalajara covered 591 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 196 km² of it. That is 47 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2 times its size, and its people are 2.1 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in Mexico
Its share of Mexico
Of every 100 people in Mexico in 2025, 3 lived in Guadalajara, which is 4.1 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Mexico; the coloured squares live in Guadalajara. 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
- 104 Luxor Egypt4,188,023
- 105 Belo Horizonte Brazil4,162,814
- 106 Wenzhou China4,158,195
- 107 Sydney Australia4,150,917
- 108 Guadalajara4,135,440
- 109 Douala Cameroon4,104,516
- 110 Jaipur India4,071,754
- 111 Sana'a Yemen4,018,856
- 112 Taiyuan China4,005,816
In Mexico, 2025
- 15 Mexico City17,734,212
- 108 Guadalajara4,135,440
- 116 Monterrey3,938,015
- 255 Puebla1,947,971
- 320 Tijuana1,557,695
- 335 Toluca1,505,035
- 371 León1,367,521
- 417 Torreón1,227,850
- 425 Ciudad Juárez1,212,370
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 Guadalajara 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 Guadalajara 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