Topics
Munich, 
Germany
1,815,022 people lived in Munich in 2025. It is the 275th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Germany.
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 Munich'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 Munich grew
Count 10 people in Munich in 1975 and the same count gives 13.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.8 million people in 2050.
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
Munich through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Munich in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Germany · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 100 cities in Germany in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Berlin. The ringed dot in colour is Munich; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Munich covered 345 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 73 km² of it. That is 40 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 47%, and its people have grown by 32%.
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 Germany
Its share of Germany
Of every 100 people in Germany in 2025, 2 lived in Munich, which is 1.8 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Germany; the coloured squares live in Munich. 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
- 271 Benin City Nigeria1,845,432
- 272 Isfahan Iran1,844,409
- 273 Pretoria South Africa1,836,166
- 274 Ranchi India1,819,944
- 275 Munich1,815,022
- 276 Beirut Lebanon1,794,019
- 277 Yinchuan China1,792,788
- 278 Xiamen City China1,788,492
- 279 Handan China1,777,172
In Germany, 2025
- 132 Berlin3,560,908
- 183 Essen2,717,087
- 275 Munich1,815,022
- 280 Hamburg1,759,377
- 459 Cologne1,125,292
- 570 Dusseldorf907,386
- 573 Frankfurt900,483
- 576 Stuttgart899,103
- 708 Bonn756,044
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 Munich 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 Munich 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