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Nizhny Novgorod, 
Russia
1,196,944 people lived in Nizhny Novgorod in 2025. It is the 432nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in Russia.
Like every city on this site, Nizhny Novgorod 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 Nizhny Novgorod grew
For every 10 people in Nizhny Novgorod in 1975, there were 9.1 in 2025: it shrank.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.1 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
Nizhny Novgorod through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Nizhny Novgorod in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Russia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Nizhny Novgorod is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Russia in 2025, 254 in all, led by Moscow, 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, Nizhny Novgorod covered 229 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 47 km² of it. That is 39 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 46%, and its people have fallen by 9%.
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 Russia
Its share of Russia
Of every 1,000 people in Russia in 2025, 8 lived in Nizhny Novgorod, which is 1.2 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Russia, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Nizhny Novgorod's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 428 Kitakyushu Japan1,206,731
- 429 Lyon France1,202,985
- 430 Prague Czechia1,197,765
- 431 Calgary Canada1,197,110
- 432 Nizhny Novgorod1,196,944
- 433 Jalandhar India1,192,763
- 434 Oran Algeria1,192,410
- 435 Hiroshima Japan1,185,788
- 436 Padang Indonesia1,184,342
In Russia, 2025
- 19 Moscow14,524,753
- 91 Saint Petersburg4,736,499
- 381 Novosibirsk1,331,432
- 432 Nizhny Novgorod1,196,944
- 449 Yekaterinburg1,148,237
- 456 Kazan1,132,941
- 479 Rostov-on-Don1,065,880
- 530 Omsk975,485
- 543 Samara955,599
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 Nizhny Novgorod 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 Nizhny Novgorod 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