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McAllen, 
United States
355,331 people lived in McAllen in 2025. It is the 1606th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 55th largest in the United States.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area McAllen 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 McAllen grew
Count 10 people in McAllen in 2005 and the same count gives 62.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 576,177 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2015 and 2020. The UN first counts it as a city in 2005, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
McAllen through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in McAllen in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: McAllen is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of the United States in 2025, 348 in all, led by New York City, 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, McAllen covered 161 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 36 km² of it. That is 101 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 10 by 10 metres. Since 2005, its built-up land has grown to 5.3 times its size, and its people are 6.2 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 1,000 people in the United States in 2025, 1 lived in McAllen, which is 355,331 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in the United States; the coloured squares live in McAllen. 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
- 1602 Vinh Vietnam355,643
- 1603 Satara India355,609
- 1604 Dhubri India355,592
- 1605 Fukuyama Japan355,352
- 1606 McAllen355,331
- 1607 Nandail Bangladesh354,872
- 1608 Balyana Egypt354,769
- 1609 Massawa Eritrea354,657
- 1610 Anápolis Brazil354,576
In the United States, 2025
- 1553 Plano367,716
- 1557 Riverside367,336
- 1569 Mission Viejo365,221
- 1597 Memphis356,215
- 1606 McAllen355,331
- 1618 Oak Ridge353,212
- 1663 Kansas City344,125
- 1779 Buffalo322,892
- 1780 Parma322,420
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 McAllen are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 2005 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 McAllen 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