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Irkutsk, 
Russia
442,807 people lived in Irkutsk in 2025. It is the 1256th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 31st largest in Russia.
Like every city on this site, Irkutsk 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 Irkutsk grew
Irkutsk had about as many people in 2025 as in 1975.
On the UN's projection it will have 418,825 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
Irkutsk through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Irkutsk in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Russia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Irkutsk is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Russia in 2025, 254 in all, led by Moscow, 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, Irkutsk covered 100 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 22 km² of it. That is 50 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 47%, and its people are about 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 Russia
Its share of Russia
Of every 1,000 people in Russia in 2025, 3 lived in Irkutsk, which is 442,807 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Russia, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Irkutsk's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1252 Chaoyang China443,864
- 1253 Bologna Italy443,849
- 1254 Abéché Chad443,793
- 1255 Thanjavur India443,736
- 1256 Irkutsk442,807
- 1257 Bishoftu Ethiopia442,776
- 1258 Nizamabad India442,690
- 1259 Santa Marta Colombia442,455
- 1260 Blitar Indonesia442,219
In Russia, 2025
- 1191 Ryazan466,086
- 1220 Cheboksary456,304
- 1222 Vladivostok455,141
- 1239 Penza449,851
- 1256 Irkutsk442,807
- 1278 Kaliningrad436,555
- 1312 Orenburg426,263
- 1415 Podolsk400,335
- 1468 Ulyanovsk387,698
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 Irkutsk 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 Irkutsk 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