Topics
Guangzhou, 
China
27,563,372 people lived in Guangzhou in 2025. It is the 6th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in China.
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 Guangzhou grew
Count 10 people in Guangzhou in 1975 and the same count gives 167.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 29.2 million people in 2050. It passed ten million people between 1995 and 2000.
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
Guangzhou through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Guangzhou in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Guangzhou is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of China in 2025, 2,082 in all, led by Shanghai, 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, Guangzhou covered 4,542 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 1,120 km² of it. That is 41 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 21.3 times its size, and its people are 16.8 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 China
Its share of China
Of every 100 people in China in 2025, 2 lived in Guangzhou, which is 27.6 million people.
How to read this: shrink China to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Guangzhou; 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
- 2 Dhaka Bangladesh36,585,479
- 3 Tokyo Japan33,412,512
- 4 New Delhi India30,222,405
- 5 Shanghai29,558,908
- 6 Guangzhou27,563,372
- 7 Cairo Egypt25,566,102
- 8 Manila Philippines24,735,305
- 9 Kolkata India22,549,738
- 10 Seoul South Korea22,490,482
In China, 2025
- 5 Shanghai29,558,908
- 6 Guangzhou27,563,372
- 16 Beijing17,013,303
- 23 Shenzhen13,878,396
- 43 Suzhou7,731,101
- 45 Hangzhou7,500,208
- 46 Wuhan7,363,548
- 47 Tianjin7,285,342
- 51 Chongqing7,071,073
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 Guangzhou 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 Guangzhou 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