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Ho Chi Minh City, 
Vietnam
14,052,713 people lived in Ho Chi Minh City in 2025. It is the 20th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Vietnam.
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 Ho Chi Minh City grew
For every 10 people in Ho Chi Minh City in 1975, there were 58.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 17.2 million people in 2050. It passed ten million people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Ho Chi Minh City through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Ho Chi Minh City 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 ringed dot in colour is Ho Chi Minh City; 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, Ho Chi Minh City covered 1,546 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 392 km² of it. That is 28 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 8.7 times its size, and its people are 5.9 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, 14 lived in Ho Chi Minh City, which is 14.1 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 Ho Chi Minh City's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 16 Beijing China17,013,303
- 17 Lahore Pakistan15,156,430
- 18 Istanbul Türkiye15,014,763
- 19 Moscow Russia14,524,753
- 20 Ho Chi Minh City14,052,713
- 21 Buenos Aires Argentina14,017,736
- 22 New York City United States13,920,148
- 23 Shenzhen China13,878,396
- 24 Bengaluru India13,187,098
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: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Ho Chi Minh City 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 Ho Chi Minh City 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