Topics
Lille, 
France
893,282 people lived in Lille in 2025. It is the 578th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in France.
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 Lille grew
For every 10 people in Lille in 1975, there were 11 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 844,012 people in 2050.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Lille through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Lille in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
France · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: France and its 71 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Paris). Lille 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, Lille covered 211 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 57 km² of it. That is 63 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 48%, and its people have grown by 10%.
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 France
Its share of France
Of every 100 people in France in 2025, 1 lived in Lille, which is 893,282 people.
How to read this: shrink France to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Lille; 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
- 574 Kisangani Democratic Republic of the Congo900,330
- 575 Odesa Ukraine899,157
- 576 Stuttgart Germany899,103
- 577 Ad Diwaniyah Iraq894,478
- 578 Lille893,282
- 579 Erode India892,758
- 580 Qiqihar China892,744
- 581 Marseille891,463
- 582 Sitamarhi India889,696
In France, 2025
- 36 Paris9,381,921
- 429 Lyon1,202,985
- 578 Lille893,282
- 581 Marseille891,463
- 839 Toulouse642,224
- 856 Bordeaux631,551
- 1227 Nantes453,523
- 1345 Nice418,294
- 1424 Strasbourg398,175
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 Lille 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 Lille 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