Topics
Osaka, 
Japan
12,964,145 people lived in Osaka in 2025. It is the 25th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Japan.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Osaka grew
For every 10 people in Osaka in 1975, there were 9 in 2025: it shrank.
On the UN's projection it will have 10.4 million people in 2050.
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
Osaka through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Osaka in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Japan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Osaka is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Japan in 2025, 137 in all, led by Tokyo, 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, Osaka covered 2,229 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 656 km² of it. That is 51 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 22%, and its people have fallen by 10%.
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 Japan
Its share of Japan
Of every 100 people in Japan in 2025, 11 lived in Osaka, which is 13.0 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Japan, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Osaka's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 21 Buenos Aires Argentina14,017,736
- 22 New York City United States13,920,148
- 23 Shenzhen China13,878,396
- 24 Bengaluru India13,187,098
- 25 Osaka12,964,145
- 26 Lagos Nigeria12,791,699
- 27 Los Angeles United States12,740,420
- 28 Luanda Angola11,370,127
- 29 Chennai India11,153,205
In Japan, 2025
- 3 Tokyo33,412,512
- 25 Osaka12,964,145
- 49 Nagoya7,146,160
- 226 Fukuoka2,225,078
- 252 Sapporo1,964,519
- 406 Sendai1,256,440
- 428 Kitakyushu1,206,731
- 435 Hiroshima1,185,788
- 484 Naha1,060,017
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 Osaka 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 Osaka 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