Topics
Mumbai, 
India
20,203,056 people lived in Mumbai in 2025. It is the 12th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in India.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Mumbai's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Mumbai grew
For every 10 people in Mumbai in 1975, there were 24.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 23.1 million people in 2050. It passed ten million people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Mumbai through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Mumbai in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
India · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Mumbai is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of India in 2025, 2,054 in all, led by New Delhi, 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, Mumbai covered 740 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 152 km² of it. That is 8 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 3 by 3 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.3 times its size, and its people are 2.4 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 India
Its share of India
Of every 100 people in India in 2025, 1 lived in Mumbai, which is 20.2 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in India, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Mumbai's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 8 Manila Philippines24,735,305
- 9 Kolkata22,549,738
- 10 Seoul South Korea22,490,482
- 11 Karachi Pakistan21,422,590
- 12 Mumbai20,203,056
- 13 São Paulo Brazil18,949,790
- 14 Bangkok Thailand18,180,280
- 15 Mexico City Mexico17,734,212
- 16 Beijing China17,013,303
In India, 2025
- 4 New Delhi30,222,405
- 9 Kolkata22,549,738
- 12 Mumbai20,203,056
- 24 Bengaluru13,187,098
- 29 Chennai11,153,205
- 34 Hajipur9,941,510
- 37 Hyderabad9,190,795
- 44 Ahmedabad7,632,408
- 53 Surat6,908,925
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 Mumbai 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 Mumbai 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