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Motihari, 
India
392,303 people lived in Motihari in 2025. It is the 1450th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 236th largest in India.
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 Motihari grew
Where Motihari had 10 people in 1975, it had 38.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 495,851 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: 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
Motihari through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Motihari in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
India · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: India and its 2,054 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is New Delhi). Motihari 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, Motihari covered 44 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 6.4 km² of it. That is 16 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 6.4 times its size, and its people are 3.9 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 India
Its share of India
Fewer than 1 in every 1,000 people in India lived in Motihari in 2025 — about 1 in 3,704.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1446 Kadapa393,513
- 1447 Santiago del Estero Argentina393,257
- 1448 Gonder Ethiopia392,767
- 1449 Jiyuan China392,568
- 1450 Motihari392,303
- 1451 Corrientes Argentina392,082
- 1452 Nadiad391,934
- 1453 Juba South Sudan391,311
- 1454 Zheba China390,709
In India, 2025
- 1438 Sonipat394,583
- 1441 Mahesana394,304
- 1445 Morena393,553
- 1446 Kadapa393,513
- 1450 Motihari392,303
- 1452 Nadiad391,934
- 1463 Tamkuhi Raj389,533
- 1483 Eluru383,068
- 1485 Rewa383,019
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 Motihari 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 Motihari 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