Topics
Hangzhou, 
China
7,500,208 people lived in Hangzhou in 2025. It is the 45th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 6th largest in China.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Hangzhou's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Hangzhou grew
Count 10 people in Hangzhou in 1975 and the same count gives 67.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 9.6 million people in 2050. It passed five million people between 2000 and 2005.
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
Hangzhou through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Hangzhou in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Hangzhou 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, Hangzhou covered 1,610 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 391 km² of it. That is 52 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 14.4 times its size, and its people are 6.7 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 1,000 people in China in 2025, 5 lived in Hangzhou, which is 7.5 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in China, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Hangzhou's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 41 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia8,443,731
- 42 Dar es Salaam Tanzania7,795,114
- 43 Suzhou7,731,101
- 44 Ahmedabad India7,632,408
- 45 Hangzhou7,500,208
- 46 Wuhan7,363,548
- 47 Tianjin7,285,342
- 48 Alexandria Egypt7,266,957
- 49 Nagoya Japan7,146,160
In China, 2025
- 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
- 57 Nanjing6,800,676
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 Hangzhou 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 Hangzhou 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