Topics
Homel, 
Belarus
529,882 people lived in Homel in 2025. It is the 1048th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Belarus.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Homel governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Homel grew
Where Homel had 10 people in 1975, it had 17 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 485,787 people in 2050.
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
Homel through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Homel in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Belarus · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Belarus and its 15 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Minsk). Homel is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Homel covered 75 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 19 km² of it. That is 36 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 61%, and its people have grown by 70%.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in Belarus
Its share of Belarus
Of every 100 people in Belarus in 2025, 6 lived in Homel, which is 529,882 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Belarus; the coloured squares live in Homel. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1044 Bozhou China531,429
- 1045 'Adan Yemen530,573
- 1046 Leicester United Kingdom530,264
- 1047 Hatay Türkiye530,262
- 1048 Homel529,882
- 1049 Feira de Santana Brazil529,185
- 1050 Beibei China527,806
- 1051 Langfang China527,161
- 1052 Maroua Cameroon526,702
In Belarus, 2025
- 254 Minsk1,950,680
- 1048 Homel529,882
- 1493 Mahilioŭ380,951
- 1522 Hrodna374,464
- 1546 Brest369,414
- 1582 Vitsebsk361,484
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 Homel 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 Homel 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