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Manta, 
Ecuador
287,756 people lived in Manta in 2025. It is the 2026th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 5th largest in Ecuador.
Like every city on this site, Manta 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 Manta grew
Where Manta had 10 people in 1975, it had 20.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 353,482 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Manta through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Manta in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ecuador · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 32 cities in Ecuador in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Guayaquil. The ringed dot in colour is Manta; 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, Manta covered 61 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 16 km² of it. That is 56 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2 times its size, and its people are 2.1 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 Ecuador
Its share of Ecuador
Of every 100 people in Ecuador in 2025, 2 lived in Manta, which is 287,756 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Ecuador; the coloured squares live in Manta. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 2019 Nag Hammadi Egypt288,576
- 2020 Bratislava Slovakia288,533
- 2021 Bhiwani India288,360
- 2025 Timergara Pakistan287,866
- 2026 Manta287,756
- 2027 Vinh Long Vietnam287,685
- 2028 Kunduz Afghanistan287,295
- 2029 Maseru Lesotho286,843
- 2030 Sucre Bolivia286,383
In Ecuador, 2025
- 157 Guayaquil3,157,825
- 197 Quito2,534,914
- 1149 Cuenca482,272
- 1594 Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas356,829
- 2026 Manta287,756
- 2110 Ambato274,672
- 2243 Salinas [Santa Elena]260,161
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 Manta 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 Manta 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