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Oakland, 
United States
1,503,319 people lived in Oakland in 2025. It is the 337th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 18th largest in the United States.
Like every city on this site, Oakland 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 Oakland grew
Count 10 people in Oakland in 1975 and the same count gives 15.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.6 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1975 and 1980.
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
Oakland through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Oakland 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 (the largest is New York City). Oakland 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, Oakland covered 500 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 135 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 55%, and its people have grown by 52%.
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 the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 1,000 people in the United States in 2025, 4 lived in Oakland, which is 1.5 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in the United States, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Oakland's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 333 Sacramento1,514,661
- 334 Austin1,513,032
- 335 Toluca Mexico1,505,035
- 336 Kananga Democratic Republic of the Congo1,504,370
- 337 Oakland1,503,319
- 338 Batam City Indonesia1,500,354
- 339 Stockholm Sweden1,500,093
- 340 Baotou China1,491,964
- 341 Anyang China1,489,112
In the United States, 2025
- 296 Boston1,639,797
- 329 Dallas1,521,118
- 333 Sacramento1,514,661
- 334 Austin1,513,032
- 337 Oakland1,503,319
- 359 Seattle1,403,495
- 363 Mesa1,398,369
- 364 Portland1,397,788
- 370 Fort Lauderdale1,368,027
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 Oakland 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 Oakland 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