Topics
Madrid, 
Spain
5,583,601 people lived in Madrid in 2025. It is the 72nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Spain, 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 Madrid grew
Count 10 people in Madrid in 1975 and the same count gives 18.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 5.6 million people in 2050. It passed five million people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Madrid through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Madrid in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Spain · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Madrid is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Spain in 2025, 84 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, Madrid covered 645 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 148 km² of it. That is 26 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.2 times its size, and its people have grown by 89%.
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 Spain
Its share of Spain
Of every 100 people in Spain in 2025, 12 lived in Madrid, which is 5.6 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Spain; the coloured squares live in Madrid. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 68 Kabul Afghanistan5,635,737
- 69 Onitsha Nigeria5,627,706
- 70 Yangon Myanmar5,618,303
- 71 Accra Ghana5,592,780
- 72 Madrid5,583,601
- 73 Faisalabad Pakistan5,566,382
- 74 Toronto Canada5,494,431
- 75 Mashhad Iran5,398,248
- 76 Dubai United Arab Emirates5,283,789
In Spain, 2025
- 72 Madrid5,583,601
- 114 Barcelona3,982,704
- 366 Valencia1,390,045
- 721 Bilbao741,795
- 769 Seville699,504
- 934 Zaragoza585,533
- 1057 Málaga521,854
- 1173 Palma de Mallorca473,499
- 1428 Alicante397,948
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 Madrid 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 Madrid 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