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Kuching, 
Malaysia
586,880 people lived in Kuching in 2025. It is the 931st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 6th largest in Malaysia.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Kuching 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 Kuching grew
Where Kuching had 10 people in 1975, it had 34.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 731,847 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1990 and 1995.
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
Kuching through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kuching 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). Kuching 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, Kuching covered 132 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 30 km² of it. That is 51 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.9 times its size, and its people are 3.5 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 Kuching, which is 586,880 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 Kuching; 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
- 927 Jalalabad Afghanistan587,508
- 928 Sagar India587,471
- 929 Ballari India587,340
- 930 Deoria India586,987
- 931 Kuching586,880
- 932 Izhevsk Russia586,811
- 933 Yenagoa Nigeria586,393
- 934 Zaragoza Spain585,533
- 935 Loudi China585,521
In Malaysia, 2025
- 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
- 1287 Seremban434,530
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 Kuching 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 Kuching 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