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Kirkuk, 
Iraq
1,153,160 people lived in Kirkuk in 2025. It is the 444th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 6th largest in Iraq.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Kirkuk governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Kirkuk grew
For every 10 people in Kirkuk in 1975, there were 97.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.7 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2015 and 2020.
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
Kirkuk through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kirkuk in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Iraq · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Iraq and its 88 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Baghdad). Kirkuk 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, Kirkuk covered 118 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 33 km² of it. That is 28 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.3 times its size, and its people are 9.7 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in Iraq
Its share of Iraq
Of every 100 people in Iraq in 2025, 2 lived in Kirkuk, which is 1.2 million people.
How to read this: shrink Iraq to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Kirkuk; 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
- 440 Cabinda Angola1,157,345
- 441 Serrekunda Gambia1,156,903
- 442 El Mahalla El Kubra Egypt1,156,501
- 443 Jammu India1,154,466
- 444 Kirkuk1,153,160
- 445 Rosario Argentina1,151,717
- 446 Touba Senegal1,151,552
- 447 Turin Italy1,150,975
- 448 Sincan Türkiye1,149,921
In Iraq, 2025
- 241 Basra2,033,553
- 293 Mosul1,665,214
- 312 Erbil1,582,829
- 403 Al-Najaf1,273,450
- 444 Kirkuk1,153,160
- 486 Al Hillah1,055,267
- 501 Karbala1,022,893
- 535 Duhok969,701
- 569 Sulaymaniyah907,815
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Kirkuk 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 Kirkuk 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