Topics
Izmir, 
Türkiye
2,650,237 people lived in Izmir in 2025. It is the 188th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Türkiye.
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 Izmir grew
Count 10 people in Izmir in 1975 and the same count gives 16.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.7 million people in 2050.
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
Izmir through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Izmir in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Türkiye · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Izmir is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Türkiye in 2025, 177 in all, led by Istanbul, 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, Izmir covered 309 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 71 km² of it. That is 27 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 81%, and its people have grown by 62%.
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 Türkiye
Its share of Türkiye
Of every 100 people in Türkiye in 2025, 3 lived in Izmir, which is 2.7 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Türkiye; the coloured squares live in Izmir. 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
- 184 Cali Colombia2,700,232
- 185 Guiyang China2,686,949
- 186 Semarang Indonesia2,679,349
- 187 Montreal Canada2,668,723
- 188 Izmir2,650,237
- 189 Changzhou China2,649,836
- 190 Tel Aviv Israel2,642,872
- 191 Birmingham United Kingdom2,631,757
- 192 Kiev Ukraine2,614,581
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 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 Izmir 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 Izmir 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