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Luoyang, 
China
1,727,744 people lived in Luoyang in 2025. It is the 284th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 45th largest in China.
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 Luoyang grew
For every 10 people in Luoyang in 1975, there were 22.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Luoyang through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Luoyang in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 2,082 cities in China in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Shanghai. The ringed dot in colour is Luoyang; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Luoyang covered 336 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 81 km² of it. That is 47 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.3 times its size, and its people are 2.3 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in China
Its share of China
Of every 1,000 people in China in 2025, 1 lived in Luoyang, which is 1.7 million people.
How to read this: shrink China to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Luoyang; 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
- 280 Hamburg Germany1,759,377
- 281 Porto Alegre Brazil1,755,917
- 282 Slawi Indonesia1,733,437
- 283 Aligarh India1,729,663
- 284 Luoyang1,727,744
- 285 El Mansura Egypt1,712,781
- 286 Vancouver Canada1,707,865
- 287 Dhulian India1,699,325
- 288 Johor Bahru Malaysia1,695,838
In China, 2025
- 269 Putian1,871,858
- 277 Yinchuan1,792,788
- 278 Xiamen City1,788,492
- 279 Handan1,777,172
- 284 Luoyang1,727,744
- 291 Nantong1,684,417
- 300 Wuhu1,631,043
- 301 Zibo1,620,676
- 315 Datong1,573,531
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 Luoyang 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 Luoyang 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