Topics
Karnal, 
India
494,241 people lived in Karnal in 2025. It is the 1123rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 174th largest in India.
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 Karnal grew
For every 10 people in Karnal in 1975, there were 22 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 592,289 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1980 and 1985.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Karnal through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Karnal in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
India · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Karnal is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of India in 2025, 2,054 in all, led by New Delhi, 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, Karnal covered 65 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 14 km² of it. That is 29 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3 times its size, and its people are 2.2 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 India
Its share of India
Fewer than 1 in every 1,000 people in India lived in Karnal in 2025 — about 1 in 2,941.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1119 Baishan China495,030
- 1120 Fatehpur494,897
- 1121 Poznan Poland494,839
- 1122 Ibagué Colombia494,316
- 1123 Karnal494,241
- 1124 Himeji Japan494,064
- 1125 Siping China493,984
- 1126 Hapur493,837
- 1127 Aswan Egypt493,753
In India, 2025
- 1084 Mau512,415
- 1086 Roorkee511,291
- 1103 Lakhimpur501,540
- 1120 Fatehpur494,897
- 1123 Karnal494,241
- 1126 Hapur493,837
- 1128 Hardoi493,665
- 1135 Kakinada488,958
- 1138 Bazarati487,581
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 Karnal 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 Karnal 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