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Nanning, 
China
3,288,636 people lived in Nanning in 2025. It is the 143rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 27th largest in China.
Like every city on this site, Nanning is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Nanning grew
Where Nanning had 10 people in 1975, it had 56.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.2 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1990 and 1995.
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
Nanning through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Nanning in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: China and its 2,082 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Shanghai). Nanning 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, Nanning covered 238 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 63 km² of it. That is 19 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4 times its size, and its people are 5.6 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 China
Its share of China
Of every 1,000 people in China in 2025, 2 lived in Nanning, which is 3.3 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in China, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Nanning's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 139 Medellín Colombia3,350,384
- 140 Changchun3,349,934
- 141 Patna India3,309,383
- 142 Nanchang3,299,773
- 143 Nanning3,288,636
- 144 Quanzhou3,286,129
- 145 Washington, D.C. United States3,270,018
- 146 Busan South Korea3,263,221
- 147 Nagpur India3,257,841
In China, 2025
- 137 Jinan3,472,980
- 138 Changsha3,457,508
- 140 Changchun3,349,934
- 142 Nanchang3,299,773
- 143 Nanning3,288,636
- 144 Quanzhou3,286,129
- 151 Kunming3,228,117
- 161 Ningbo3,094,833
- 164 Shijiazhuang2,990,397
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 Nanning 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 Nanning 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