Topics
Muscat, 
Oman
Masqąt
780,545 people lived in Muscat in 2025. It is the 681st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Oman, where it is the capital.
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.
In its own language: Masqąt.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Muscat grew
Count 10 people in Muscat in 1990 and the same count gives 113.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.1 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2040 and 2045. The UN first counts it as a city in 1990, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Muscat through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Muscat in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Oman · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Oman and its 12 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Muscat 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, Muscat covered 154 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 28 km² of it. That is 35 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown to 7.3 times its size, and its people are 11.3 times as many.
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 Oman
Its share of Oman
Of every 100 people in Oman in 2025, 14 lived in Muscat, which is 780,545 people.
How to read this: shrink Oman to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Muscat; 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
- 677 Yingkou China782,210
- 678 Nanyang China782,146
- 679 Zhenjiang China781,639
- 680 Jalgaon India781,486
- 681 Muscat780,545
- 682 Pingdingshan China779,154
- 683 Rourkela India776,631
- 684 Bahawalpur Pakistan776,611
- 685 Kharagpur India776,133
In Oman, 2025
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 Muscat are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 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 Muscat 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