Topics
Mardan, 
Pakistan
1,330,031 people lived in Mardan in 2025. It is the 383rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 10th largest in Pakistan.
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 Mardan grew
Count 10 people in Mardan in 1975 and the same count gives 71.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.2 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Mardan through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Mardan in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Pakistan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Mardan is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Pakistan in 2025, 323 in all, led by Karachi, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Mardan covered 212 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 31 km² of it. That is 24 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 11.6 times its size, and its people are 7.2 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 Pakistan
Its share of Pakistan
Of every 1,000 people in Pakistan in 2025, 5 lived in Mardan, which is 1.3 million people.
How to read this: shrink Pakistan to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Mardan; 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
- 379 Mysuru India1,342,126
- 380 Salem India1,337,000
- 381 Novosibirsk Russia1,331,432
- 382 Purwokerto Indonesia1,331,010
- 383 Mardan1,330,031
- 384 Cần Thơ Vietnam1,327,741
- 385 Zhongshan China1,326,078
- 386 Samarinda Indonesia1,325,554
- 387 Kishoreganj Bangladesh1,324,096
In Pakistan, 2025
- 159 Gujranwala3,121,271
- 165 Multan2,956,642
- 174 Hyderabad2,863,633
- 263 Sialkot1,907,978
- 383 Mardan1,330,031
- 452 Sargodha1,142,723
- 497 Quetta1,025,211
- 498 Mingora1,024,813
- 600 Nowshera872,172
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 Mardan 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 Mardan 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