Topics
Ottawa, 
Canada
605,121 people lived in Ottawa in 2025. It is the 900th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 7th largest in Canada, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Ottawa governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Ottawa grew
Where Ottawa had 10 people in 1975, it had 21.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 715,605 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
Ottawa through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Ottawa in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Canada · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 56 cities in Canada in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Toronto. The ringed dot in colour is Ottawa; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Ottawa covered 197 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 41 km² of it. That is 67 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 85%, and its people are 2.2 times as many.
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 Canada
Its share of Canada
Of every 100 people in Canada in 2025, 2 lived in Ottawa, which is 605,121 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Canada; the coloured squares live in Ottawa. 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
- 896 Zhangjiakou China606,124
- 897 Shibin Al-Kom Egypt605,913
- 898 El Paso United States605,731
- 899 Anqiu China605,324
- 900 Ottawa605,121
- 901 Tampico Mexico603,035
- 902 Pereira Colombia602,831
- 903 Changzhi China602,771
- 904 Tyumen Russia602,535
In Canada, 2025
- 286 Vancouver1,707,865
- 431 Calgary1,197,110
- 524 Edmonton981,522
- 796 Winnipeg679,037
- 900 Ottawa605,121
- 1134 Quebec490,451
- 1226 Surrey454,230
- 1292 Hamilton432,788
- 1579 London362,006
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 Ottawa 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 Ottawa 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