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Ningbo, 
China
3,094,833 people lived in Ningbo in 2025. It is the 161st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 30th largest in China.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Ningbo governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Ningbo grew
For every 10 people in Ningbo in 1975, there were 96.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.8 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: 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
Ningbo through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Ningbo in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Ningbo is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of China in 2025, 2,082 in all, led by Shanghai, 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, Ningbo covered 529 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 124 km² of it. That is 40 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 13.5 times its size, and its people are 9.7 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in China
Its share of China
Of every 1,000 people in China in 2025, 2 lived in Ningbo, which is 3.1 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in China; the coloured squares live in Ningbo. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 157 Guayaquil Ecuador3,157,825
- 158 Salvador Brazil3,135,157
- 159 Gujranwala Pakistan3,121,271
- 160 Athens Greece3,101,979
- 161 Ningbo3,094,833
- 162 Kollam India3,074,562
- 163 Cebu City Philippines3,044,564
- 164 Shijiazhuang2,990,397
- 165 Multan Pakistan2,956,642
In China, 2025
- 142 Nanchang3,299,773
- 143 Nanning3,288,636
- 144 Quanzhou3,286,129
- 151 Kunming3,228,117
- 161 Ningbo3,094,833
- 164 Shijiazhuang2,990,397
- 171 Fuzhou2,910,985
- 178 Dalian2,796,248
- 185 Guiyang2,686,949
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 Ningbo 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 Ningbo 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