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Nara, 
Japan
993,952 people lived in Nara in 2025. It is the 515th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 10th largest in Japan.
Like every city on this site, Nara 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 Nara grew
Where Nara had 10 people in 1975, it had 7.4 in 2025, fewer than it started with.
On the UN's projection it will have 751,876 people in 2050.
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
Nara through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Nara in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Japan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 137 cities in Japan in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Tokyo. The ringed dot in colour is Nara; 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, Nara covered 345 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 89 km² of it. That is 90 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 9 by 9 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 43%, and its people have fallen by 26%.
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 Japan
Its share of Japan
Of every 1,000 people in Japan in 2025, 8 lived in Nara, which is 993,952 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Japan, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Nara's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 511 Malda India1,001,322
- 512 Jinhua China998,519
- 513 Puducherry India998,290
- 514 Mataram Indonesia997,132
- 515 Nara993,952
- 516 Mangaluru India993,566
- 517 San Luis Potosí Mexico992,648
- 518 Shiyan China992,165
- 519 Gaya India991,081
In Japan, 2025
- 406 Sendai1,256,440
- 428 Kitakyushu1,206,731
- 435 Hiroshima1,185,788
- 484 Naha1,060,017
- 515 Nara993,952
- 643 Okayama817,266
- 843 Kumamoto641,185
- 978 Otsu559,798
- 1041 Kanazawa533,682
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Nara 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 Nara 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