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Malacca City, 
Malaysia
555,703 people lived in Malacca City in 2025. It is the 986th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 7th largest in Malaysia.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Malacca City governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Malacca City grew
Count 10 people in Malacca City in 1980 and the same count gives 72.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 671,695 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1995 and 2000. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Malacca City through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Malacca City in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Malaysia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 42 cities in Malaysia in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Kuala Lumpur. The ringed dot in colour is Malacca City; 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, Malacca City covered 203 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 40 km² of it. That is 72 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 6.4 times its size, and its people are 7.2 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 Malaysia
Its share of Malaysia
Of every 100 people in Malaysia in 2025, 2 lived in Malacca City, which is 555,703 people.
How to read this: shrink Malaysia to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Malacca City; 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
- 982 Yulin China558,277
- 983 Yuncheng China558,182
- 984 Kalyanpur India557,803
- 985 Shangrao China556,394
- 986 Malacca City555,703
- 987 Ambon Indonesia555,651
- 988 Yitang China555,576
- 989 Dresden Germany554,612
- 990 Tabuk Saudi Arabia553,389
In Malaysia, 2025
- 638 Ipoh823,097
- 672 Kota Kinabalu789,885
- 697 George Town765,884
- 931 Kuching586,880
- 986 Malacca City555,703
- 1071 Bukit Mertajam517,326
- 1210 Kota Bharu460,445
- 1287 Seremban434,530
- 1412 Sandakan400,980
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 Malacca City are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 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 Malacca City 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