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Makassar, 
Indonesia
2,255,088 people lived in Makassar in 2025. It is the 223rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 9th largest in Indonesia.
Like every city on this site, Makassar is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Makassar grew
Where Makassar had 10 people in 1975, it had 27.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.4 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: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Makassar through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Makassar in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Indonesia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Makassar is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Indonesia in 2025, 389 in all, led by Jakarta, 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, Makassar covered 360 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 66 km² of it. That is 29 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.1 times its size, and its people are 2.8 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in Indonesia
Its share of Indonesia
Of every 1,000 people in Indonesia in 2025, 8 lived in Makassar, which is 2.3 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Indonesia; the coloured squares live in Makassar. 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
- 219 Vadodara India2,270,298
- 220 Taichung Taiwan2,268,685
- 221 Denver United States2,265,994
- 222 Phnom Penh Cambodia2,261,055
- 223 Makassar2,255,088
- 224 Ludhiana India2,245,106
- 225 Philadelphia United States2,232,420
- 226 Fukuoka Japan2,225,078
- 227 Meerut India2,209,886
In Indonesia, 2025
- 177 Tasikmalaya2,827,255
- 179 Yogyakarta2,793,747
- 186 Semarang2,679,349
- 209 Denpasar2,352,734
- 223 Makassar2,255,088
- 237 Palembang2,132,576
- 259 Tarogong1,917,036
- 265 Malang1,899,616
- 282 Slawi1,733,437
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 Makassar 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 Makassar 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