Topics
Madurai, 
India
2,138,746 people lived in Madurai in 2025. It is the 236th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 35th largest in India.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Madurai's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Madurai grew
Count 10 people in Madurai in 1975 and the same count gives 22.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.3 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1975 and 1980.
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
Madurai through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Madurai in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
India · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Madurai is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of India in 2025, 2,054 in all, led by New Delhi, 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, Madurai covered 213 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 38 km² of it. That is 18 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.7 times its size, and its people are 2.2 times as many.
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 India
Its share of India
Of every 1,000 people in India in 2025, 1 lived in Madurai, which is 2.1 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in India, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Madurai's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 232 Las Vegas United States2,183,655
- 233 Belém Brazil2,180,454
- 234 Cixi China2,177,489
- 235 San José Costa Rica2,171,213
- 236 Madurai2,138,746
- 237 Palembang Indonesia2,132,576
- 238 Harare Zimbabwe2,117,195
- 239 Banha Egypt2,088,520
- 240 Rabat Morocco2,069,287
In India, 2025
- 210 Prayagraj2,347,869
- 219 Vadodara2,270,298
- 224 Ludhiana2,245,106
- 227 Meerut2,209,886
- 236 Madurai2,138,746
- 245 Dhanbad2,020,181
- 246 Mehsi2,018,610
- 247 Nashik1,996,763
- 253 Jamshedpur1,956,840
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 Madurai 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 Madurai 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