Topics
Mecca, 
Saudi Arabia
1,692,152 people lived in Mecca in 2025. It is the 289th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in Saudi Arabia.
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 Mecca grew
For every 10 people in Mecca in 1975, there were 104.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.4 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2005 and 2010.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Mecca through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Mecca in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Saudi Arabia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Saudi Arabia and its 44 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Riyadh). Mecca 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, Mecca covered 235 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 55 km² of it. That is 33 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4 times its size, and its people are 10.5 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 Saudi Arabia
Its share of Saudi Arabia
Of every 100 people in Saudi Arabia in 2025, 5 lived in Mecca, which is 1.7 million people.
How to read this: shrink Saudi Arabia to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Mecca; 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
- 285 El Mansura Egypt1,712,781
- 286 Vancouver Canada1,707,865
- 287 Dhulian India1,699,325
- 288 Johor Bahru Malaysia1,695,838
- 289 Mecca1,692,152
- 290 San Antonio United States1,686,163
- 291 Nantong China1,684,417
- 292 Sao Goncalo Brazil1,679,246
- 293 Mosul Iraq1,665,214
In Saudi Arabia, 2025
- 52 Riyadh6,916,417
- 100 Jeddah4,284,080
- 212 Dammam2,335,647
- 289 Mecca1,692,152
- 354 Medina1,432,287
- 738 Al Ahsa725,760
- 990 Tabuk553,389
- 1113 Khamis Mushayt497,246
- 1151 At Ta'if481,818
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 Mecca 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 Mecca 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