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Guayaquil, 
Ecuador
3,157,825 people lived in Guayaquil in 2025. It is the 157th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Ecuador.
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 Guayaquil grew
For every 10 people in Guayaquil in 1975, there were 33.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.6 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1975 and 1980.
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
Guayaquil through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Guayaquil in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ecuador · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Ecuador and its 32 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Guayaquil 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, Guayaquil covered 310 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 97 km² of it. That is 31 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.2 times its size, and its people are 3.4 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 Ecuador
Its share of Ecuador
Of every 100 people in Ecuador in 2025, 17 lived in Guayaquil, which is 3.2 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Ecuador, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Guayaquil's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 153 Durban South Africa3,177,927
- 154 Maputo Mozambique3,166,328
- 155 San Francisco United States3,163,486
- 156 Kalyan-Dombivli India3,163,424
- 157 Guayaquil3,157,825
- 158 Salvador Brazil3,135,157
- 159 Gujranwala Pakistan3,121,271
- 160 Athens Greece3,101,979
- 161 Ningbo China3,094,833
In Ecuador, 2025
- 157 Guayaquil3,157,825
- 197 Quito2,534,914
- 1149 Cuenca482,272
- 1594 Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas356,829
- 2026 Manta287,756
- 2110 Ambato274,672
- 2243 Salinas [Santa Elena]260,161
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 Guayaquil 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 Guayaquil 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