Topics
Otsu, 
Japan
559,798 people lived in Otsu in 2025. It is the 978th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 13th largest in Japan.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Otsu's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Otsu grew
Where Otsu had 10 people in 1975, it had 12.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 469,415 people in 2050.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Otsu through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Otsu in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Japan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Japan and its 137 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Tokyo). Otsu 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, Otsu covered 170 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 44 km² of it. That is 78 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 9 by 9 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 87%, and its people have grown by 25%.
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 Japan
Its share of Japan
Of every 1,000 people in Japan in 2025, 5 lived in Otsu, which is 559,798 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Japan; the coloured squares live in Otsu. 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
- 974 Shengze China562,800
- 975 Sultanpur India562,032
- 976 Al Minya Egypt561,945
- 977 Denizli Türkiye561,327
- 978 Otsu559,798
- 979 Qarshi Uzbekistan559,475
- 980 Chhapra India559,249
- 981 Davanagere India559,117
- 982 Yulin China558,277
In Japan, 2025
- 484 Naha1,060,017
- 515 Nara993,952
- 643 Okayama817,266
- 843 Kumamoto641,185
- 978 Otsu559,798
- 1041 Kanazawa533,682
- 1124 Himeji494,064
- 1145 Kagoshima484,164
- 1263 Toyohashi441,665
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 Otsu 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 Otsu 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