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Meerut, 
India
2,209,886 people lived in Meerut in 2025. It is the 227th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 34th largest in India.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Meerut 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 Meerut grew
For every 10 people in Meerut in 1975, there were 25.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.6 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Meerut through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Meerut in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
India · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 2,054 cities in India in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being New Delhi. The ringed dot in colour is Meerut; 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, Meerut covered 227 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 46 km² of it. That is 21 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.3 times its size, and its people are 2.5 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 India
Its share of India
Of every 1,000 people in India in 2025, 2 lived in Meerut, which is 2.2 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in India, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Meerut's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 223 Makassar Indonesia2,255,088
- 224 Ludhiana2,245,106
- 225 Philadelphia United States2,232,420
- 226 Fukuoka Japan2,225,078
- 227 Meerut2,209,886
- 228 Barranquilla Colombia2,208,021
- 229 Macau - Zhuhai Macao2,203,065
- 230 Doha Qatar2,193,708
- 231 Kaohsiung Taiwan2,187,455
In India, 2025
- 206 Coimbatore2,382,988
- 210 Prayagraj2,347,869
- 219 Vadodara2,270,298
- 224 Ludhiana2,245,106
- 227 Meerut2,209,886
- 236 Madurai2,138,746
- 245 Dhanbad2,020,181
- 246 Mehsi2,018,610
- 247 Nashik1,996,763
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 Meerut 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 Meerut 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