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Kandahar, 
Afghanistan
799,015 people lived in Kandahar in 2025. It is the 662nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Afghanistan.
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 Kandahar'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 Kandahar grew
Where Kandahar had 10 people in 1975, it had 78.3 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 2035 and 2040.
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
Kandahar through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kandahar in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Afghanistan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 85 cities in Afghanistan in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Kabul. The ringed dot in colour is Kandahar; 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, Kandahar covered 91 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 15 km² of it. That is 19 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.8 times its size, and its people are 7.8 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 Afghanistan
Its share of Afghanistan
Of every 100 people in Afghanistan in 2025, 2 lived in Kandahar, which is 799,015 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Afghanistan, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Kandahar's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 658 Andijon Uzbekistan803,518
- 659 Abeokuta Nigeria801,826
- 660 Belagavi India800,130
- 661 Bilaspur India799,772
- 662 Kandahar799,015
- 663 Cuiabá Brazil798,772
- 664 Qinhuangdao China797,748
- 665 Arusha Tanzania795,744
- 666 Chelyabinsk Russia794,411
In Afghanistan, 2025
- 68 Kabul5,635,737
- 405 Herat1,259,425
- 662 Kandahar799,015
- 834 Mazar i sharif651,287
- 927 Jalalabad587,508
- 2003 Taloqan290,028
- 2028 Kunduz287,295
- 2560 Maymana229,355
- 2574 Puli Khumri228,271
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 Kandahar 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 Kandahar 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