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Cities · United Kingdom · capital
London, 
United Kingdom
10,416,420 people lived in London in 2025. It is the 33rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in the United Kingdom, where it is the capital.
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 London grew
For every 10 people in London in 1975, there were 14.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 11.9 million people in 2050. It passed ten million people between 2020 and 2025.
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
London through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in London in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United Kingdom · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: London is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of the United Kingdom in 2025, 150 in all, 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, London covered 1,646 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 426 km² of it. That is 41 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 32%, and its people have grown by 41%.
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 the United Kingdom
Its share of the United Kingdom
Of every 100 people in the United Kingdom in 2025, 15 lived in London, which is 10.4 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in the United Kingdom, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have London's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 29 Chennai India11,153,205
- 30 Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo10,943,641
- 31 Bogotá Colombia10,624,315
- 32 Lima Peru10,580,241
- 33 London10,416,420
- 34 Hajipur India9,941,510
- 35 Rio de Janeiro Brazil9,500,336
- 36 Paris France9,381,921
- 37 Hyderabad India9,190,795
In the United Kingdom, 2025
- 33 London10,416,420
- 191 Birmingham2,631,757
- 196 Manchester2,535,427
- 418 Liverpool1,227,470
- 480 Leeds1,065,607
- 533 Glasgow970,320
- 700 Newcastle upon Tyne760,969
- 835 Nottingham649,610
- 875 Bristol615,703
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 London 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 London 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