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Kuala Lumpur, 
Malaysia
8,443,731 people lived in Kuala Lumpur in 2025. It is the 41st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Malaysia, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Kuala Lumpur 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 Kuala Lumpur grew
Where Kuala Lumpur had 10 people in 1975, it had 494.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 10.6 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes ten million people between 2040 and 2045.
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
Kuala Lumpur through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kuala Lumpur in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Malaysia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Malaysia and its 42 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Kuala Lumpur 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, Kuala Lumpur covered 1,345 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 340 km² of it. That is 40 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 38.1 times its size, and its people are 49.4 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 Malaysia
Its share of Malaysia
Of every 100 people in Malaysia in 2025, 23 lived in Kuala Lumpur, which is 8.4 million people.
How to read this: shrink Malaysia to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Kuala Lumpur; 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
- 37 Hyderabad India9,190,795
- 38 Tehran Iran9,174,964
- 39 Taipei Taiwan9,136,792
- 40 Bandung Indonesia8,909,104
- 41 Kuala Lumpur8,443,731
- 42 Dar es Salaam Tanzania7,795,114
- 43 Suzhou China7,731,101
- 44 Ahmedabad India7,632,408
- 45 Hangzhou China7,500,208
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: 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 Kuala Lumpur 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 Kuala Lumpur 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