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Hengshui, 
China
618,465 people lived in Hengshui in 2025. It is the 870th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 154th largest in China.
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 Hengshui grew
For every 10 people in Hengshui in 1985, there were 78.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 555,270 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1995 and 2000. The UN first counts it as a city in 1985, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Hengshui through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Hengshui in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Hengshui 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, Hengshui covered 93 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 23 km² of it. That is 37 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 3.6 times its size, and its people are 7.8 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 China
Its share of China
Fewer than 1 in every 1,000 people in China lived in Hengshui in 2025 — about 1 in 2,273.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 866 Pingxiang623,055
- 867 Xiashan622,080
- 868 Chiclayo Peru620,622
- 869 Bannu Pakistan620,328
- 870 Hengshui618,465
- 871 Larkana Pakistan618,408
- 872 Malegaon India618,133
- 873 West Palm Beach United States617,035
- 874 Farrukhabad India615,831
In China, 2025
- 857 Yuxi631,209
- 859 Qujing630,828
- 866 Pingxiang623,055
- 867 Xiashan622,080
- 870 Hengshui618,465
- 882 Suining613,678
- 889 Xingning609,923
- 894 Zhaoqing607,624
- 896 Zhangjiakou606,124
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 Hengshui are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1985 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 Hengshui 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