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Manizales, 
Colombia
440,407 people lived in Manizales in 2025. It is the 1266th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 12th largest in Colombia.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Manizales grew
Count 10 people in Manizales in 1975 and the same count gives 18.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 435,103 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1975 and 1980.
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
Manizales through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Manizales in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Colombia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Colombia and its 81 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Bogotá). Manizales 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, Manizales covered 55 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 9.6 km² of it. That is 22 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.6 times its size, and its people have grown by 84%.
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 Colombia
Its share of Colombia
Of every 1,000 people in Colombia in 2025, 8 lived in Manizales, which is 440,407 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Colombia, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Manizales's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1262 Belfast United Kingdom441,925
- 1263 Toyohashi Japan441,665
- 1264 Chief Albert Luthuli Park South Africa441,204
- 1265 Zhanjiang China440,587
- 1266 Manizales440,407
- 1267 Gemena Democratic Republic of the Congo440,327
- 1268 Maragha Egypt440,011
- 1269 Tallinn Estonia439,526
- 1270 Dindigul India438,809
In Colombia, 2025
- 902 Pereira602,831
- 954 Valledupar574,824
- 1122 Ibagué494,316
- 1259 Santa Marta442,455
- 1266 Manizales440,407
- 1272 Buenaventura438,063
- 1484 Villavicencio383,028
- 1537 Pasto371,637
- 1685 Montería339,380
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 Manizales 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 Manizales 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