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Hong Kong, 
Hong Kong
Tamar
4,749,543 people lived in Hong Kong in 2025. It is the 90th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Hong Kong, 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: Tamar.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Hong Kong grew
Count 10 people in Hong Kong in 1975 and the same count gives 16.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.9 million people in 2050.
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
Hong Kong through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Hong Kong in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Hong Kong · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Hong Kong is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Hong Kong in 2025, 6 in all, 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, Hong Kong covered 219 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 36 km² of it. That is 8 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 3 by 3 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.4 times its size, and its people have grown by 65%.
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 Hong Kong
Its share of Hong Kong
Of every 100 people in Hong Kong in 2025, 64 lived in Hong Kong, which is 4.7 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Hong Kong; the coloured squares live in Hong Kong. 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
- 86 Zhengzhou China4,878,035
- 87 Hefei China4,867,000
- 88 Islāmābād Pakistan4,860,084
- 89 Kano Nigeria4,840,280
- 90 Hong Kong4,749,543
- 91 Saint Petersburg Russia4,736,499
- 92 Santo Domingo Dominican Republic4,600,064
- 93 Cape Town South Africa4,508,921
- 94 Casablanca Morocco4,457,471
In Hong Kong, 2025
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 Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong 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