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Helsingfors, 
Finland
Helsinki
1,014,317 people lived in Helsingfors in 2025. It is the 509th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Finland, where it is the capital.
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.
In its own language: Helsinki.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Helsingfors grew
For every 10 people in Helsingfors in 1975, there were 37.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.0 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2020 and 2025.
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
Helsingfors through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Helsingfors in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Finland · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 6 cities in Finland in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Helsingfors; 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, Helsingfors covered 379 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 56 km² of it. That is 55 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.8 times its size, and its people are 3.8 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 Finland
Its share of Finland
Of every 100 people in Finland in 2025, 18 lived in Helsingfors, which is 1.0 million people.
How to read this: shrink Finland to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Helsingfors; 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
- 505 Luohe China1,018,295
- 506 Binhai New Area China1,017,230
- 507 Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates1,016,460
- 508 Hải Phòng Vietnam1,015,494
- 509 Helsingfors1,014,317
- 510 Cartagena Colombia1,008,584
- 511 Malda India1,001,322
- 512 Jinhua China998,519
- 513 Puducherry India998,290
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 Helsingfors 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 Helsingfors 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