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Kolkata, 
India
22,549,738 people lived in Kolkata in 2025. It is the 9th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in India.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Kolkata 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 Kolkata grew
Where Kolkata had 10 people in 1975, it had 21.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 23.8 million people in 2050.
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
Kolkata through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kolkata in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
India · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 2,054 cities in India in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being New Delhi. The ringed dot in colour is Kolkata; 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, Kolkata covered 2,329 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 347 km² of it. That is 15 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.4 times its size, and its people are 2.1 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 India
Its share of India
Of every 100 people in India in 2025, 2 lived in Kolkata, which is 22.5 million people.
How to read this: shrink India to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Kolkata; 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
- 5 Shanghai China29,558,908
- 6 Guangzhou China27,563,372
- 7 Cairo Egypt25,566,102
- 8 Manila Philippines24,735,305
- 9 Kolkata22,549,738
- 10 Seoul South Korea22,490,482
- 11 Karachi Pakistan21,422,590
- 12 Mumbai20,203,056
- 13 São Paulo Brazil18,949,790
In India, 2025
- 4 New Delhi30,222,405
- 9 Kolkata22,549,738
- 12 Mumbai20,203,056
- 24 Bengaluru13,187,098
- 29 Chennai11,153,205
- 34 Hajipur9,941,510
- 37 Hyderabad9,190,795
- 44 Ahmedabad7,632,408
- 53 Surat6,908,925
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 Kolkata 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 Kolkata 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