Topics
Montpellier, 
France
324,059 people lived in Montpellier in 2025. It is the 1772nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 11th largest in France.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Montpellier governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Montpellier grew
Where Montpellier had 10 people in 1975, it had 23.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 344,762 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2000 and 2005.
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
Montpellier through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Montpellier in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
France · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: France and its 71 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Paris). Montpellier 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, Montpellier covered 69 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 19 km² of it. That is 59 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.2 times its size, and its people are 2.3 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 France
Its share of France
Of every 1,000 people in France in 2025, 5 lived in Montpellier, which is 324,059 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in France; the coloured squares live in Montpellier. 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
- 1768 Kaiping China324,576
- 1769 Uruapan Mexico324,219
- 1770 Pandeglang Indonesia324,139
- 1771 Khorramabad Iran324,110
- 1772 Montpellier324,059
- 1773 Lieshan China323,702
- 1774 Bodeh Indonesia323,511
- 1775 Huangshan China323,492
- 1776 Hải Dương Vietnam323,442
In France, 2025
- 1227 Nantes453,523
- 1345 Nice418,294
- 1424 Strasbourg398,175
- 1587 Grenoble359,128
- 1772 Montpellier324,059
- 1844 Rouen311,071
- 1925 Toulon298,777
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 Montpellier 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 Montpellier 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