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Hakodate, 
Japan
261,557 people lived in Hakodate in 2025. It is the 2229th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 33rd largest in Japan.
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 Hakodate grew
Where Hakodate had 10 people in 1975, it had 7.6 in 2025, fewer than it started with.
On the UN's projection it will have 229,885 people in 2050.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Hakodate through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Hakodate in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Japan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Japan and its 137 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Tokyo). Hakodate 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, Hakodate covered 83 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 22 km² of it. That is 83 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 9 by 9 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 31%, and its people have fallen by 24%.
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 Japan
Its share of Japan
Of every 1,000 people in Japan in 2025, 2 lived in Hakodate, which is 261,557 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Japan, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Hakodate's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 2224 Kharian Pakistan262,272
- 2226 Ambur India261,614
- 2227 Jinja Uganda261,604
- 2228 Moirabari India261,593
- 2229 Hakodate261,557
- 2232 Pemba Mozambique261,380
- 2233 Agbara Nigeria261,298
- 2234 Areraj India261,142
- 2235 Sidi Bel Abbes Algeria261,103
In Japan, 2025
- 1930 Asahikawa298,481
- 2061 Hamamatsu282,084
- 2073 Kofu280,212
- 2152 Nagano270,476
- 2229 Hakodate261,557
- 2282 Wakayama255,782
- 2460 Ota237,865
- 5014 Fujieda122,203
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 Hakodate 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 Hakodate 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