Topics
Kandy, 
Sri Lanka
785,519 people lived in Kandy in 2025. It is the 675th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Sri Lanka.
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 Kandy'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 Kandy grew
For every 10 people in Kandy in 1975, there were 45.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 880,569 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1985 and 1990.
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
Kandy through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kandy in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Sri Lanka · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Sri Lanka and its 24 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte - Colombo). Kandy 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, Kandy covered 299 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 27 km² of it. That is 34 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 10.4 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 Sri Lanka
Its share of Sri Lanka
Of every 100 people in Sri Lanka in 2025, 3 lived in Kandy, which is 785,519 people.
How to read this: shrink Sri Lanka to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Kandy; 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
- 671 Fergana Uzbekistan791,877
- 672 Kota Kinabalu Malaysia789,885
- 673 Yingkou China786,031
- 674 Suzhou China785,949
- 675 Kandy785,519
- 676 Krasnodar Russia783,125
- 677 Yingkou China782,210
- 678 Nanyang China782,146
- 679 Zhenjiang China781,639
In Sri Lanka, 2025
- 78 Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte - Colombo5,223,838
- 675 Kandy785,519
- 1651 Galle346,263
- 1987 Matara292,019
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 Kandy 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 Kandy 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