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Kuantan, 
Malaysia
373,353 people lived in Kuantan in 2025. It is the 1527th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 13th largest in Malaysia.
Like every city on this site, Kuantan is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Kuantan grew
For every 10 people in Kuantan in 1975, there were 67.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 551,833 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Kuantan through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kuantan 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 (the largest is Kuala Lumpur). Kuantan 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, Kuantan covered 87 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 17 km² of it. That is 45 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 6.5 times its size, and its people are 6.8 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, 1 lived in Kuantan, which is 373,353 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 Kuantan; 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
- 1523 Debandi India374,423
- 1524 Pakpattan Pakistan374,389
- 1525 Wonsan North Korea373,596
- 1526 Valletta Malta373,474
- 1527 Kuantan373,353
- 1528 Junagadh India373,265
- 1529 La Paz Mexico372,988
- 1530 Khagaria India372,707
- 1531 Abonnema Nigeria372,654
In Malaysia, 2025
- 1210 Kota Bharu460,445
- 1287 Seremban434,530
- 1412 Sandakan400,980
- 1515 Tawau375,573
- 1527 Kuantan373,353
- 1759 Kuala Terengganu326,615
- 1852 Sungai Petani310,566
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 Kuantan 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 Kuantan 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