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Kota Kinabalu, 
Malaysia
789,885 people lived in Kota Kinabalu in 2025. It is the 672nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in Malaysia.
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 Kota Kinabalu'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 Kota Kinabalu grew
Count 10 people in Kota Kinabalu in 1975 and the same count gives 135.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.0 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2045 and 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
Kota Kinabalu through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kota Kinabalu in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Malaysia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Kota Kinabalu is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Malaysia in 2025, 42 in all, led by Kuala Lumpur, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Kota Kinabalu covered 171 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 31 km² of it. That is 39 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 6.2 times its size, and its people are 13.5 times as many.
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 Malaysia
Its share of Malaysia
Of every 100 people in Malaysia in 2025, 2 lived in Kota Kinabalu, which is 789,885 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Malaysia; the coloured squares live in Kota Kinabalu. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 668 Oyo Nigeria793,241
- 669 Irbid Jordan792,470
- 670 Dnipro Ukraine792,115
- 671 Fergana Uzbekistan791,877
- 672 Kota Kinabalu789,885
- 673 Yingkou China786,031
- 674 Suzhou China785,949
- 675 Kandy Sri Lanka785,519
- 676 Krasnodar Russia783,125
In Malaysia, 2025
- 41 Kuala Lumpur8,443,731
- 288 Johor Bahru1,695,838
- 638 Ipoh823,097
- 672 Kota Kinabalu789,885
- 697 George Town765,884
- 931 Kuching586,880
- 986 Malacca City555,703
- 1071 Bukit Mertajam517,326
- 1210 Kota Bharu460,445
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 Kota Kinabalu 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 Kota Kinabalu 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