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Nasiriyah, 
Iraq
813,799 people lived in Nasiriyah in 2025. It is the 647th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 13th largest in Iraq.
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 Nasiriyah'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 Nasiriyah grew
Where Nasiriyah had 10 people in 1975, it had 59.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.2 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2035 and 2040.
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
Nasiriyah through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Nasiriyah in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Iraq · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Nasiriyah is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Iraq in 2025, 88 in all, led by Baghdad, 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, Nasiriyah covered 74 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 17 km² of it. That is 21 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 5.4 times its size, and its people are 5.9 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 Iraq
Its share of Iraq
Of every 100 people in Iraq in 2025, 2 lived in Nasiriyah, which is 813,799 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Iraq, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Nasiriyah's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 643 Okayama Japan817,266
- 644 Qom Iran815,416
- 645 Zakho814,526
- 646 Munger India814,325
- 647 Nasiriyah813,799
- 648 Al Mushahidah813,506
- 649 Mit Ghamr Egypt812,947
- 650 Sukkur Pakistan812,885
- 651 Barquisimeto Venezuela812,384
In Iraq, 2025
- 535 Duhok969,701
- 569 Sulaymaniyah907,815
- 577 Ad Diwaniyah894,478
- 645 Zakho814,526
- 647 Nasiriyah813,799
- 648 Al Mushahidah813,506
- 836 Amarah645,612
- 960 Jafar Muhammad Ali570,883
- 1132 Al-Kut491,247
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 Nasiriyah 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 Nasiriyah 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