Topics
Montreal, 
Canada
2,668,723 people lived in Montreal in 2025. It is the 187th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Canada.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Montreal 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 Montreal grew
Where Montreal had 10 people in 1975, it had 15.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.8 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
Montreal through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Montreal in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Canada · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Canada and its 56 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Toronto). Montreal 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, Montreal covered 706 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 172 km² of it. That is 64 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 75%, and its people have grown by 59%.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in Canada
Its share of Canada
Of every 100 people in Canada in 2025, 7 lived in Montreal, which is 2.7 million people.
How to read this: shrink Canada to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Montreal; 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
- 183 Essen Germany2,717,087
- 184 Cali Colombia2,700,232
- 185 Guiyang China2,686,949
- 186 Semarang Indonesia2,679,349
- 187 Montreal2,668,723
- 188 Izmir Türkiye2,650,237
- 189 Changzhou China2,649,836
- 190 Tel Aviv Israel2,642,872
- 191 Birmingham United Kingdom2,631,757
In Canada, 2025
- 74 Toronto5,494,431
- 187 Montreal2,668,723
- 286 Vancouver1,707,865
- 431 Calgary1,197,110
- 524 Edmonton981,522
- 796 Winnipeg679,037
- 900 Ottawa605,121
- 1134 Quebec490,451
- 1226 Surrey454,230
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 Montreal 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 Montreal 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