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Merauke, 
Indonesia
243,395 people lived in Merauke in 2025. It is the 2401st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 83rd largest in Indonesia.
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 Merauke grew
Where Merauke had 10 people in 2005, it had 36.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 406,623 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2025 and 2030. 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: 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
Merauke through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Merauke in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Indonesia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Merauke is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Indonesia in 2025, 389 in all, led by Jakarta, 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, Merauke covered 39 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 5.8 km² of it. That is 24 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 2005, its built-up land has grown by 66%, and its people are 3.6 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 Indonesia
Its share of Indonesia
Of every 1,000 people in Indonesia in 2025, 1 lived in Merauke, which is 243,395 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Indonesia, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Merauke's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 2394 Panabo Philippines244,050
- 2397 Qena Egypt243,801
- 2398 El Senbellawein Egypt243,779
- 2400 Sawai Madhopur India243,561
- 2401 Merauke243,395
- 2404 Kamituga Democratic Republic of the Congo243,261
- 2405 Ho Ghana243,211
- 2407 Quiha Ethiopia243,110
- 2408 Dapaong Togo242,985
In Indonesia, 2025
- 2059 Kemangkon282,463
- 2139 Gunung Lingkas271,868
- 2174 Ternate267,842
- 2388 Subang244,383
- 2401 Merauke243,395
- 2710 Tembilahan218,371
- 2743 Elelim215,216
- 2746 Manokwari214,949
- 2774 Mulia213,704
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 Merauke 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 Merauke 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