Topics
Mexicali, 
Mexico
737,963 people lived in Mexicali in 2025. It is the 727th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 17th largest in Mexico.
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 Mexicali'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 Mexicali grew
Count 10 people in Mexicali in 1975 and the same count gives 40.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 796,292 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Mexicali through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Mexicali in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Mexico · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Mexico and its 186 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Mexico City). Mexicali 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, Mexicali covered 163 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 47 km² of it. That is 63 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.3 times its size, and its people are 4.1 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 Mexico
Its share of Mexico
Of every 1,000 people in Mexico in 2025, 6 lived in Mexicali, which is 737,963 people.
How to read this: shrink Mexico to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Mexicali; 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
- 723 Şanlıurfa Türkiye739,807
- 724 Bhavnagar India739,115
- 725 Dandong China738,721
- 726 Djibouti Djibouti738,192
- 727 Mexicali737,963
- 728 Saltillo737,662
- 729 Kocaeli Türkiye737,380
- 730 Benxi China734,933
- 731 Nellore India732,235
In Mexico, 2025
- 618 Mérida847,166
- 625 Cuernavaca839,485
- 691 Chihuahua771,297
- 698 Hermosillo765,445
- 727 Mexicali737,963
- 728 Saltillo737,662
- 765 Culiacán701,609
- 768 Acapulco699,888
- 811 Veracruz668,350
How to read this: the number before each name is its place among all 12,138 cities in the world in 2025; bars are people, on one scale per list. Only cities that reach 300,000 people have a page here, so a gap in the numbers is a smaller city.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Mexicali 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 Mexicali 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