Topics
Istanbul, 
Türkiye
15,014,763 people lived in Istanbul in 2025. It is the 18th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Türkiye.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Istanbul governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Istanbul grew
Count 10 people in Istanbul in 1975 and the same count gives 28.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 16.3 million people in 2050. It passed ten million people between 1995 and 2000.
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
Istanbul through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Istanbul in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Türkiye · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 177 cities in Türkiye in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Istanbul; 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, Istanbul covered 1,268 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 305 km² of it. That is 20 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.1 times its size, and its people are 2.8 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 Türkiye
Its share of Türkiye
Of every 100 people in Türkiye in 2025, 17 lived in Istanbul, which is 15.0 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Türkiye; the coloured squares live in Istanbul. 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
- 14 Bangkok Thailand18,180,280
- 15 Mexico City Mexico17,734,212
- 16 Beijing China17,013,303
- 17 Lahore Pakistan15,156,430
- 18 Istanbul15,014,763
- 19 Moscow Russia14,524,753
- 20 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam14,052,713
- 21 Buenos Aires Argentina14,017,736
- 22 New York City United States13,920,148
In Türkiye, 2025
- 18 Istanbul15,014,763
- 129 Ankara3,612,251
- 188 Izmir2,650,237
- 216 Bursa2,281,622
- 303 Gaziantep1,613,357
- 402 Antalya1,273,822
- 448 Sincan1,149,921
- 542 Konya959,484
- 585 Kayseri882,238
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 Istanbul 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 Istanbul 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