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Lausanne, 
Switzerland
293,509 people lived in Lausanne in 2025. It is the 1983rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in Switzerland.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Lausanne grew
Where Lausanne had 10 people in 1975, it had 18 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 307,889 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2015 and 2020.
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
Lausanne through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Lausanne in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Switzerland · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Lausanne is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Switzerland in 2025, 17 in all, led by Zurich, 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, Lausanne covered 75 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 14 km² of it. That is 48 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 times its size, and its people have grown by 80%.
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 Switzerland
Its share of Switzerland
Of every 100 people in Switzerland in 2025, 3 lived in Lausanne, which is 293,509 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Switzerland, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Lausanne's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1979 Anlu China293,857
- 1980 Shahrisabz Uzbekistan293,849
- 1981 Bohicon Benin293,833
- 1982 San-Pédro Côte d’Ivoire293,698
- 1983 Lausanne293,509
- 1984 Hazro Pakistan293,506
- 1985 Kasaji Democratic Republic of the Congo292,523
- 1986 Kanyamazane South Africa292,211
- 1987 Matara Sri Lanka292,019
In Switzerland, 2025
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 Lausanne 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 Lausanne 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