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Cities · Philippines · capital
Manila, 
Philippines
24,735,305 people lived in Manila in 2025. It is the 8th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in the Philippines, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Manila 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 Manila grew
Count 10 people in Manila in 1975 and the same count gives 29.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 27.1 million people in 2050. It passed ten million people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Manila through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Manila in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Philippines · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: the Philippines and its 114 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Manila 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, Manila covered 2,438 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 483 km² of it. That is 20 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.4 times its size, and its people are 3 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 the Philippines
Its share of the Philippines
Of every 100 people in the Philippines in 2025, 21 lived in Manila, which is 24.7 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in the Philippines, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Manila's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 4 New Delhi India30,222,405
- 5 Shanghai China29,558,908
- 6 Guangzhou China27,563,372
- 7 Cairo Egypt25,566,102
- 8 Manila24,735,305
- 9 Kolkata India22,549,738
- 10 Seoul South Korea22,490,482
- 11 Karachi Pakistan21,422,590
- 12 Mumbai India20,203,056
In the Philippines, 2025
- 8 Manila24,735,305
- 163 Cebu City3,044,564
- 322 Davao City1,546,026
- 350 Angeles1,445,721
- 545 Dagupan [Lingayen]953,092
- 601 Cagayan de Oro870,291
- 750 Iloilo City717,038
- 828 Bacolod655,836
- 880 Lipa614,898
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Manila 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 Manila 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