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Medina, 
Saudi Arabia
1,432,287 people lived in Medina in 2025. It is the 354th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 5th largest in Saudi Arabia.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Medina's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Medina grew
For every 10 people in Medina in 1980, there were 195.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.1 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2010 and 2015. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Medina through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Medina in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Saudi Arabia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 44 cities in Saudi Arabia in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Riyadh. The ringed dot in colour is Medina; 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, Medina covered 267 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 61 km² of it. That is 42 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 6.3 times its size, and its people are 19.5 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 Saudi Arabia
Its share of Saudi Arabia
Of every 100 people in Saudi Arabia in 2025, 4 lived in Medina, which is 1.4 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Saudi Arabia, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Medina's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 350 Angeles Philippines1,445,721
- 351 Gwangju South Korea1,441,495
- 352 Dushanbe Tajikistan1,440,787
- 353 Valencia Venezuela1,435,894
- 354 Medina1,432,287
- 355 Aba Nigeria1,428,069
- 356 Al Zaqaziq Egypt1,416,734
- 357 Asyut Egypt1,406,963
- 358 Brussels Belgium1,406,499
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 Medina are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 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 Medina 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