Topics
Mexico City, 
Mexico
Ciudad de México
17,734,212 people lived in Mexico City in 2025. It is the 15th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Mexico, where it is the capital.
Like every city on this site, Mexico City is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
In its own language: Ciudad de México.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Mexico City grew
Where Mexico City had 10 people in 1975, it had 15.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 17.7 million people in 2050.
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
Mexico City through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Mexico City in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Mexico · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Mexico City is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Mexico in 2025, 186 in all, 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, Mexico City covered 2,097 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 643 km² of it. That is 36 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 40%, and its people have grown by 59%.
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 100 people in Mexico in 2025, 13 lived in Mexico City, which is 17.7 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Mexico, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Mexico City's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 11 Karachi Pakistan21,422,590
- 12 Mumbai India20,203,056
- 13 São Paulo Brazil18,949,790
- 14 Bangkok Thailand18,180,280
- 15 Mexico City17,734,212
- 16 Beijing China17,013,303
- 17 Lahore Pakistan15,156,430
- 18 Istanbul Türkiye15,014,763
- 19 Moscow Russia14,524,753
In Mexico, 2025
- 15 Mexico City17,734,212
- 108 Guadalajara4,135,440
- 116 Monterrey3,938,015
- 255 Puebla1,947,971
- 320 Tijuana1,557,695
- 335 Toluca1,505,035
- 371 León1,367,521
- 417 Torreón1,227,850
- 425 Ciudad Juárez1,212,370
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 Mexico City 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 Mexico City 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