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Modesto, 
United States
310,818 people lived in Modesto in 2025. It is the 1845th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 61st largest in the United States.
Like every city on this site, Modesto is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Modesto grew
Count 10 people in Modesto in 1990 and the same count gives 47.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 326,265 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2005 and 2010. The UN first counts it as a city in 1990, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Modesto through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Modesto in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Modesto is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of the United States in 2025, 348 in all, led by New York City, 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, Modesto covered 122 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 38 km² of it. That is 122 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 11 by 11 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown to 3.9 times its size, and its people are 4.7 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 Modesto, which is 310,818 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in the United States, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Modesto's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1841 Simri Bakhtiarpur India311,434
- 1842 Oshawa Canada311,294
- 1843 Arlington311,130
- 1844 Rouen France311,071
- 1845 Modesto310,818
- 1846 Pachuca Mexico310,805
- 1847 Brno Czechia310,796
- 1848 Cluj-Napoca Romania310,650
- 1849 Gorgan Iran310,644
In the United States, 2025
- 1663 Kansas City344,125
- 1779 Buffalo322,892
- 1780 Parma322,420
- 1843 Arlington311,130
- 1845 Modesto310,818
- 1903 Hammond301,148
- 1934 Arlington Heights298,081
- 1996 Louisville291,103
- 1998 Euclid290,669
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 Modesto are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 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 Modesto 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