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Osh, 
Kyrgyzstan
495,400 people lived in Osh in 2025. It is the 1118th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Kyrgyzstan.
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 Osh grew
For every 10 people in Osh in 1975, there were 19.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 695,260 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
Osh through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Osh in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Kyrgyzstan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Kyrgyzstan and its 12 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Bishkek). Osh 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, Osh covered 84 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 24 km² of it. That is 48 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.4 times its size, and its people have grown by 91%.
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 Kyrgyzstan
Its share of Kyrgyzstan
Of every 100 people in Kyrgyzstan in 2025, 7 lived in Osh, which is 495,400 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Kyrgyzstan, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Osh's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1114 Yangjiang China496,608
- 1115 Bloemfontein South Africa496,295
- 1116 Sousse Tunisia495,877
- 1117 Huludao China495,819
- 1118 Osh495,400
- 1119 Baishan China495,030
- 1120 Fatehpur India494,897
- 1121 Poznan Poland494,839
- 1122 Ibagué Colombia494,316
In Kyrgyzstan, 2025
- 378 Bishkek1,343,048
- 1118 Osh495,400
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 Osh 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 Osh 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