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Mandalay, 
Myanmar
1,541,309 people lived in Mandalay in 2025. It is the 324th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Myanmar.
Like every city on this site, Mandalay 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 Mandalay grew
For every 10 people in Mandalay in 1975, there were 21.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1990 and 1995.
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
Mandalay through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Mandalay in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Myanmar · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Myanmar and its 125 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Yangon). Mandalay is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Mandalay covered 167 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 42 km² of it. That is 27 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.3 times its size, and its people are 2.2 times as many.
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 Myanmar
Its share of Myanmar
Of every 100 people in Myanmar in 2025, 3 lived in Mandalay, which is 1.5 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Myanmar, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Mandalay's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 320 Tijuana Mexico1,557,695
- 321 Gwalior India1,554,246
- 322 Davao City Philippines1,546,026
- 323 Vasai-Virar India1,542,177
- 324 Mandalay1,541,309
- 325 Manama Bahrain1,538,872
- 326 Surakarta Indonesia1,538,599
- 327 Panama City Panama1,527,393
- 328 Brasília Brazil1,521,148
In Myanmar, 2025
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 Mandalay 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 Mandalay 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