Topics
Jerusalem, 
Israel
920,478 people lived in Jerusalem in 2025. It is the 563rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Israel, where it is the capital.
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 Jerusalem'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 Jerusalem grew
Where Jerusalem had 10 people in 1975, it had 35.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.2 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2030 and 2035.
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
Jerusalem through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Jerusalem in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Israel · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Israel and its 25 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Tel Aviv). Jerusalem is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Jerusalem covered 73 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 15 km² of it. That is 16 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2 times its size, and its people are 3.5 times 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 Israel
Its share of Israel
Of every 100 people in Israel in 2025, 10 lived in Jerusalem, which is 920,478 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Israel; the coloured squares live in Jerusalem. 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
- 559 Teresina Brazil929,795
- 560 Chandanaish Bangladesh928,788
- 561 Jos Nigeria923,652
- 562 Libreville Gabon921,216
- 563 Jerusalem920,478
- 564 Xuchang China916,553
- 565 Ikorodu Nigeria916,166
- 566 Shiraz Iran914,496
- 567 Blantyre Malawi909,289
In Israel, 2025
- 190 Tel Aviv2,642,872
- 563 Jerusalem920,478
- 1143 Haifa484,770
- 2032 Ashdod286,310
- 2039 Modiin-Maccabim-Reut285,763
- 2195 Nazareth265,611
- 2262 Netanya257,714
- 2334 Rehovot249,925
- 2767 Beersheba214,104
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 Jerusalem 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 Jerusalem 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