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Kiev, 
Ukraine
Kyiv
2,614,581 people lived in Kiev in 2025. It is the 192nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Ukraine, where it is the capital.
Like every city on this site, Kiev is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
In its own language: Kyiv.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Kiev grew
Where Kiev had 10 people in 1975, it had 13.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.5 million 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
Kiev through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kiev in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ukraine · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Ukraine and its 79 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Kiev 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, Kiev covered 405 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 85 km² of it. That is 32 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 86%, and its people have grown by 35%.
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 Ukraine
Its share of Ukraine
Of every 100 people in Ukraine in 2025, 7 lived in Kiev, which is 2.6 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Ukraine, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Kiev's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 188 Izmir Türkiye2,650,237
- 189 Changzhou China2,649,836
- 190 Tel Aviv Israel2,642,872
- 191 Birmingham United Kingdom2,631,757
- 192 Kiev2,614,581
- 193 Wuxi China2,613,100
- 194 Milan Italy2,599,022
- 195 Caracas Venezuela2,576,666
- 196 Manchester United Kingdom2,535,427
In Ukraine, 2025
- 192 Kiev2,614,581
- 394 Kharkiv1,308,892
- 575 Odesa899,157
- 670 Dnipro792,115
- 758 Donetsk705,832
- 863 Lviv627,280
- 966 Zaporizhzhia566,844
- 1161 Kryvyi Rih477,940
- 1342 Mykolaiv419,484
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 Kiev 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 Kiev 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