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Ipoh, 
Malaysia
823,097 people lived in Ipoh in 2025. It is the 638th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Malaysia.
Like every city on this site, Ipoh is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Ipoh grew
Count 10 people in Ipoh in 1975 and the same count gives 38.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 910,305 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Ipoh through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Ipoh in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Malaysia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Ipoh is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Malaysia in 2025, 42 in all, led by Kuala Lumpur, 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, Ipoh covered 210 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 50 km² of it. That is 61 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.8 times its size, and its people are 3.9 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in Malaysia
Its share of Malaysia
Of every 100 people in Malaysia in 2025, 2 lived in Ipoh, which is 823,097 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Malaysia; the coloured squares live in Ipoh. 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
- 634 Hodeidah Yemen827,012
- 635 Ibb Yemen826,974
- 636 Imphal India824,757
- 637 Baoji China823,847
- 638 Ipoh823,097
- 639 Huangshi China821,445
- 640 Vellore India820,103
- 641 Kolhapur India819,671
- 642 Porto-Novo Benin818,617
In Malaysia, 2025
- 41 Kuala Lumpur8,443,731
- 288 Johor Bahru1,695,838
- 638 Ipoh823,097
- 672 Kota Kinabalu789,885
- 697 George Town765,884
- 931 Kuching586,880
- 986 Malacca City555,703
- 1071 Bukit Mertajam517,326
- 1210 Kota Bharu460,445
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Ipoh 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 Ipoh 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