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Meishan, 
China
546,811 people lived in Meishan in 2025. It is the 1006th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 180th largest in China.
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 Meishan'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 Meishan grew
Count 10 people in Meishan in 1990 and the same count gives 70.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 470,473 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1995 and 2000. The UN first counts it as a city in 1990, 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
Meishan through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Meishan in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 2,082 cities in China in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Shanghai. The ringed dot in colour is Meishan; 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, Meishan covered 86 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 16 km² of it. That is 28 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown to 11.9 times its size, and its people are 7.1 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 China
Its share of China
Fewer than 1 in every 1,000 people in China lived in Meishan in 2025 — about 1 in 2,564.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1002 Purwakarta Indonesia549,480
- 1003 Kikwit Democratic Republic of the Congo549,102
- 1004 Port Louis Mauritius549,015
- 1005 Arrah India547,584
- 1006 Meishan546,811
- 1007 Huangdao District545,983
- 1008 Silchar India544,936
- 1009 Wanzhou544,748
- 1010 Cilacap Indonesia544,657
In China, 2025
- 985 Shangrao556,394
- 988 Yitang555,576
- 995 Panjin551,709
- 997 Luhe551,106
- 1006 Meishan546,811
- 1007 Huangdao District545,983
- 1009 Wanzhou544,748
- 1012 Huazhou543,709
- 1020 Chengtougu541,451
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Meishan are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 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 Meishan 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