Topics
Honolulu, 
United States
540,683 people lived in Honolulu in 2025. It is the 1022nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 36th largest in the United States.
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 Honolulu grew
For every 10 people in Honolulu in 1975, there were 17.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 637,550 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
Honolulu through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Honolulu in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 348 cities in the United States in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being New York City. The ringed dot in colour is Honolulu; 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, Honolulu covered 161 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 33 km² of it. That is 60 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 82%, and its people have grown by 78%.
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 the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 1,000 people in the United States in 2025, 2 lived in Honolulu, which is 540,683 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in the United States, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Honolulu's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1018 Xalapa Mexico542,213
- 1019 Durango Mexico541,787
- 1020 Chengtougu China541,451
- 1021 Kendal Indonesia541,030
- 1022 Honolulu540,683
- 1023 Matamoros Mexico540,236
- 1024 Tirupati India539,275
- 1025 Mbeya Tanzania539,248
- 1026 Kupang Indonesia538,998
In the United States, 2025
- 898 El Paso605,731
- 965 Norfolk567,473
- 994 Tampa551,988
- 1015 Salt Lake City542,449
- 1022 Honolulu540,683
- 1098 Bakersfield503,676
- 1136 Provo488,429
- 1165 Orlando477,249
- 1202 West Valley City463,325
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 Honolulu 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 Honolulu 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