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Mission Viejo, 
United States
365,221 people lived in Mission Viejo in 2025. It is the 1569th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 53rd largest in the United States.
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 Mission Viejo grew
For every 10 people in Mission Viejo in 1985, there were 29 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 576,299 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1995 and 2000. The UN first counts it as a city in 1985, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Mission Viejo through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Mission Viejo in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 348 cities in the United States in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being New York City. The ringed dot in colour is Mission Viejo; 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, Mission Viejo covered 151 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 39 km² of it. That is 107 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 10 by 10 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 3.3 times its size, and its people are 2.9 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 1,000 people in the United States in 2025, 1 lived in Mission Viejo, which is 365,221 people.
How to read this: shrink the United States to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Mission Viejo; 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
- 1565 Arak Iran366,442
- 1566 Batna Algeria366,415
- 1567 Dusuq Egypt366,123
- 1568 Colina de Laranjeiras Brazil365,960
- 1569 Mission Viejo365,221
- 1570 Yavatmal India363,908
- 1571 Borama Somalia363,753
- 1572 Vinnytsia Ukraine363,466
- 1573 Belgorod Russia363,411
In the United States, 2025
- 1436 Colorado Springs394,888
- 1475 Pittsburgh385,498
- 1553 Plano367,716
- 1557 Riverside367,336
- 1569 Mission Viejo365,221
- 1597 Memphis356,215
- 1606 McAllen355,331
- 1618 Oak Ridge353,212
- 1663 Kansas City344,125
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 Mission Viejo are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1985 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 Mission Viejo 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