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La Ceiba, 
Honduras
285,756 people lived in La Ceiba in 2025. It is the 2040th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Honduras.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area La Ceiba 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 La Ceiba grew
Count 10 people in La Ceiba in 1985 and the same count gives 48.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 371,028 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2015 and 2020. The UN first counts it as a city in 1985, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
La Ceiba through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in La Ceiba in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Honduras · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: La Ceiba is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Honduras in 2025, 16 in all, led by Tegucigalpa, 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, La Ceiba covered 53 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 8.3 km² of it. That is 29 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 3.3 times its size, and its people are 4.9 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 Honduras
Its share of Honduras
Of every 100 people in Honduras in 2025, 3 lived in La Ceiba, which is 285,756 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Honduras, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have La Ceiba's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 2034 Osmaniye Türkiye286,108
- 2036 Gondia India285,870
- 2037 Shikarpur Pakistan285,859
- 2039 Modiin-Maccabim-Reut Israel285,763
- 2040 La Ceiba285,756
- 2042 Tacloban Philippines285,095
- 2046 Zakiganj India284,125
- 2048 Cabimas Venezuela283,656
- 2049 Poway United States283,508
In Honduras, 2025
- 306 Tegucigalpa1,607,033
- 397 San Pedro Sula1,299,457
- 2040 La Ceiba285,756
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 La Ceiba are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1985 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 La Ceiba 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