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Middlesbrough, 
United Kingdom
349,436 people lived in Middlesbrough in 2025. It is the 1637th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 19th largest in the United Kingdom.
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 Middlesbrough grew
For every 10 people in Middlesbrough in 1975, there were 12 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 358,064 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
Middlesbrough through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Middlesbrough in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United Kingdom · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: the United Kingdom and its 150 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is London). Middlesbrough 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, Middlesbrough covered 113 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 28 km² of it. That is 81 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 9 by 9 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 84%, and its people have grown by 20%.
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 the United Kingdom
Its share of the United Kingdom
Of every 1,000 people in the United Kingdom in 2025, 5 lived in Middlesbrough, which is 349,436 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in the United Kingdom; the coloured squares live in Middlesbrough. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1633 Purulia India350,713
- 1634 Dahod India350,660
- 1635 Chimbote Peru350,281
- 1636 Setif Algeria349,825
- 1637 Middlesbrough349,436
- 1638 Palu Indonesia348,948
- 1639 Simri India348,804
- 1640 Sakarya Türkiye348,302
- 1641 Narowal Pakistan348,144
In the United Kingdom, 2025
- 1262 Belfast441,925
- 1308 Coventry427,678
- 1455 Cardiff390,692
- 1473 Bournemouth386,557
- 1637 Middlesbrough349,436
- 1647 Southampton347,446
- 1728 Stoke-on-Trent332,542
- 1783 Hull322,100
- 1877 Wakefield306,684
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 Middlesbrough 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 Middlesbrough 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