Topics
Isfahan, 
Iran
1,844,409 people lived in Isfahan in 2025. It is the 272nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in Iran.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Isfahan's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Isfahan grew
For every 10 people in Isfahan in 1975, there were 46.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.3 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1990 and 1995.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Isfahan through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Isfahan in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Iran · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 210 cities in Iran in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Tehran. The ringed dot in colour is Isfahan; 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, Isfahan covered 341 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 90 km² of it. That is 49 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.5 times its size, and its people are 4.6 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 Iran
Its share of Iran
Of every 100 people in Iran in 2025, 2 lived in Isfahan, which is 1.8 million people.
How to read this: shrink Iran to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Isfahan; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 268 Monrovia Liberia1,879,092
- 269 Putian China1,871,858
- 270 Port-au-Prince Haiti1,868,268
- 271 Benin City Nigeria1,845,432
- 272 Isfahan1,844,409
- 273 Pretoria South Africa1,836,166
- 274 Ranchi India1,819,944
- 275 Munich Germany1,815,022
- 276 Beirut Lebanon1,794,019
In Iran, 2025
- 38 Tehran9,174,964
- 75 Mashhad5,398,248
- 131 Karaj3,598,661
- 272 Isfahan1,844,409
- 297 Ahwaz1,639,321
- 393 Tabriz1,309,004
- 491 Sarvestan1,039,168
- 523 Kharameh983,056
- 566 Shiraz914,496
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 Isfahan 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 Isfahan 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