Topics
Manchester, 
United Kingdom
2,535,427 people lived in Manchester in 2025. It is the 196th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in the United Kingdom.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Manchester 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 Manchester grew
For every 10 people in Manchester in 1975, there were 11.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.6 million people in 2050.
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
Manchester through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Manchester in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United Kingdom · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 150 cities in the United Kingdom in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being London. The ringed dot in colour is Manchester; 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, Manchester covered 741 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 168 km² of it. That is 66 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 47%, and its people have grown by 17%.
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 the United Kingdom
Its share of the United Kingdom
Of every 100 people in the United Kingdom in 2025, 4 lived in Manchester, which is 2.5 million people.
How to read this: shrink the United Kingdom to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Manchester; 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
- 192 Kiev Ukraine2,614,581
- 193 Wuxi China2,613,100
- 194 Milan Italy2,599,022
- 195 Caracas Venezuela2,576,666
- 196 Manchester2,535,427
- 197 Quito Ecuador2,534,914
- 198 Cotonou Benin2,506,489
- 199 Bhopal India2,487,205
- 200 Curitiba Brazil2,475,352
In the United Kingdom, 2025
- 33 London10,416,420
- 191 Birmingham2,631,757
- 196 Manchester2,535,427
- 418 Liverpool1,227,470
- 480 Leeds1,065,607
- 533 Glasgow970,320
- 700 Newcastle upon Tyne760,969
- 835 Nottingham649,610
- 875 Bristol615,703
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 Manchester 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 Manchester 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