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Katowice, 
Poland
865,777 people lived in Katowice in 2025. It is the 603rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Poland.
Like every city on this site, Katowice is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Katowice grew
Where Katowice had 10 people in 1975, it had 7.9 in 2025, fewer than it started with.
On the UN's projection it will have 698,668 people in 2050.
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
Katowice through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Katowice in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Poland · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 60 cities in Poland in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Warsaw. The ringed dot in colour is Katowice; 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, Katowice covered 265 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 45 km² of it. That is 52 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 45%, and its people have fallen by 21%.
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 Poland
Its share of Poland
Of every 100 people in Poland in 2025, 2 lived in Katowice, which is 865,777 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Poland, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Katowice's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 599 Hengyang China873,169
- 600 Nowshera Pakistan872,172
- 601 Cagayan de Oro Philippines870,291
- 602 Agadir Morocco869,990
- 603 Katowice865,777
- 604 Bata Equatorial Guinea863,383
- 605 Bokaro India862,593
- 606 Guntur India862,068
- 607 Valparaíso Chile861,145
In Poland, 2025
- 267 Warsaw1,882,756
- 603 Katowice865,777
- 770 Krakow699,015
- 942 Lodz582,659
- 1089 Wrocław508,528
- 1121 Poznan494,839
- 1478 Gdansk384,985
- 1804 Sosnowiec318,955
- 1911 Szczecin300,314
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 Katowice 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 Katowice 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