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Kherson, 
Ukraine
257,682 people lived in Kherson in 2025. It is the 2263rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 14th largest in Ukraine.
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 Kherson'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 Kherson grew
Count 10 people in Kherson in 1975 and the same count gives 7 in 2025 — the city lost people.
On the UN's projection it will have 234,400 people in 2050.
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
Kherson through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kherson in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ukraine · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 79 cities in Ukraine in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Kiev. The ringed dot in colour is Kherson; 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, Kherson covered 62 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 18 km² of it. That is 70 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 23%, and its people have fallen by 30%.
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 Ukraine
Its share of Ukraine
Of every 1,000 people in Ukraine in 2025, 7 lived in Kherson, which is 257,682 people.
How to read this: shrink Ukraine to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Kherson; 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
- 2257 New Orleans United States258,413
- 2259 Abua Nigeria258,314
- 2260 Masaurhi India258,274
- 2262 Netanya Israel257,714
- 2263 Kherson257,682
- 2265 Dinghai District China257,524
- 2266 Zahrat Laban Saudi Arabia257,467
- 2267 Cabo San Lucas Mexico257,436
- 2268 Murrieta United States257,413
In Ukraine, 2025
- 1516 Mariupol375,504
- 1572 Vinnytsia363,466
- 1612 Luhansk354,296
- 1972 Simferopol294,735
- 2263 Kherson257,682
- 2350 Cherkasy248,683
- 2380 Chernihiv244,882
- 2412 Poltava242,753
- 2605 Sevastopol226,028
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Kherson 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 Kherson 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