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Krakow, 
Poland
699,015 people lived in Krakow in 2025. It is the 770th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Poland.
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 Krakow'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 Krakow grew
For every 10 people in Krakow in 1975, there were 11.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 651,379 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
Krakow through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Krakow in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Poland · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Krakow is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Poland in 2025, 60 in all, led by Warsaw, 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, Krakow covered 173 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 33 km² of it. That is 47 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.1 times its size, and its people have grown by 16%.
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 Poland
Its share of Poland
Of every 100 people in Poland in 2025, 2 lived in Krakow, which is 699,015 people.
How to read this: shrink Poland to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Krakow; 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
- 766 Akure Nigeria700,747
- 767 Deyang China700,386
- 768 Acapulco Mexico699,888
- 769 Seville Spain699,504
- 770 Krakow699,015
- 771 Urmia Iran698,050
- 772 Donghe China696,169
- 773 Hsinchu Taiwan695,677
- 774 Shahjahanpur India694,580
In Poland, 2025
- 267 Warsaw1,882,756
- 603 Katowice865,777
- 770 Krakow699,015
- 942 Lodz582,659
- 1089 Wrocław508,528
- 1121 Poznan494,839
- 1478 Gdansk384,985
- 1804 Sosnowiec318,955
- 1911 Szczecin300,314
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 Krakow 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 Krakow 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