Topics
New York City, 
United States
13,920,148 people lived in New York City in 2025. It is the 22nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in the United States.
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 New York City'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 New York City grew
For every 10 people in New York City in 1975, there were 11.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 13.2 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
New York City through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in New York City in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: the United States and its 348 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. New York City 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, New York City covered 2,691 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 679 km² of it. That is 49 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 29%, and its people have grown by 15%.
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 the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 100 people in the United States in 2025, 4 lived in New York City, which is 13.9 million people.
How to read this: shrink the United States to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in New York City; 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
- 18 Istanbul Türkiye15,014,763
- 19 Moscow Russia14,524,753
- 20 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam14,052,713
- 21 Buenos Aires Argentina14,017,736
- 22 New York City13,920,148
- 23 Shenzhen China13,878,396
- 24 Bengaluru India13,187,098
- 25 Osaka Japan12,964,145
- 26 Lagos Nigeria12,791,699
In the United States, 2025
- 22 New York City13,920,148
- 27 Los Angeles12,740,420
- 115 Houston3,955,046
- 125 Chicago3,683,385
- 145 Washington, D.C.3,270,018
- 155 San Francisco3,163,486
- 170 Miami2,912,486
- 221 Denver2,265,994
- 225 Philadelphia2,232,420
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 New York City 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 New York City 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