Topics
Kuwait City, 
Kuwait
Al Kuwayt
4,265,132 people lived in Kuwait City in 2025. It is the 101st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Kuwait, where it is the capital.
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 Kuwait City's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
In its own language: Al Kuwayt.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Kuwait City grew
For every 10 people in Kuwait City in 1975, there were 58 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 5.3 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes five 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
Kuwait City through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kuwait City in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Kuwait · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Kuwait and its 2 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Kuwait City 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, Kuwait City covered 527 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 145 km² of it. That is 34 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 87%, and its people are 5.8 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 Kuwait
Its share of Kuwait
Of every 100 people in Kuwait in 2025, 85 lived in Kuwait City, which is 4.3 million people.
How to read this: shrink Kuwait to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Kuwait City; 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
- 97 Kanpur India4,329,973
- 98 Kumasi Ghana4,297,984
- 99 Damascus Syria4,287,746
- 100 Jeddah Saudi Arabia4,284,080
- 101 Kuwait City4,265,132
- 102 Medan Indonesia4,245,895
- 103 Bamako Mali4,244,881
- 104 Luxor Egypt4,188,023
- 105 Belo Horizonte Brazil4,162,814
In Kuwait, 2025
- 101 Kuwait City4,265,132
- 2844 Al Jahra209,224
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 Kuwait City 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 Kuwait City 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