Topics
Hanoi, 
Vietnam
Hà Nội
5,068,414 people lived in Hanoi in 2025. It is the 81st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Vietnam, where it is the capital.
Like every city on this site, Hanoi is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
In its own language: Hà Nội.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Hanoi grew
Count 10 people in Hanoi in 1975 and the same count gives 34 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 4.8 million people in 2050. It passed five million people between 2015 and 2020.
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
Hanoi through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Hanoi in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Vietnam · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 137 cities in Vietnam in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Ho Chi Minh City. The ringed dot in colour is Hanoi; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Hanoi covered 870 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 165 km² of it. That is 33 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 6.2 times its size, and its people are 3.4 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 Vietnam
Its share of Vietnam
Of every 100 people in Vietnam in 2025, 5 lived in Hanoi, which is 5.1 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Vietnam, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Hanoi's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 77 Xi'an China5,231,053
- 78 Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte - Colombo Sri Lanka5,223,838
- 79 Yaoundé Cameroon5,106,087
- 80 Kochi India5,077,670
- 81 Hanoi5,068,414
- 82 Lucknow India5,052,444
- 83 Chattogram Bangladesh4,983,553
- 84 Singapore Singapore4,963,998
- 85 Kampala Uganda4,880,943
In Vietnam, 2025
- 20 Ho Chi Minh City14,052,713
- 81 Hanoi5,068,414
- 384 Cần Thơ1,327,741
- 454 Đà Nẵng1,142,621
- 508 Hải Phòng1,015,494
- 851 Long Xuyên635,490
- 969 Mỹ Tho565,906
- 1099 Nha Trang503,051
- 1111 Vũng Tàu498,010
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 Hanoi 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 Hanoi 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