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Paarl, 
South Africa
259,665 people lived in Paarl in 2025. It is the 2249th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 17th largest in South Africa.
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 Paarl grew
For every 10 people in Paarl in 1985, there were 32.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 448,328 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2020 and 2025. The UN first counts it as a city in 1985, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Paarl through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Paarl in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
South Africa · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 95 cities in South Africa in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Johannesburg. The ringed dot in colour is Paarl; 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, Paarl covered 48 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 12 km² of it. That is 45 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 4.1 times its size, and its people are 3.3 times as many.
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 South Africa
Its share of South Africa
Of every 1,000 people in South Africa in 2025, 4 lived in Paarl, which is 259,665 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in South Africa, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Paarl's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 2245 Khalilabad India259,783
- 2246 Deir Ez Zor Syria259,771
- 2247 Hazel Dell United States259,716
- 2248 Jianhu China259,681
- 2249 Paarl259,665
- 2250 Vidisha India259,638
- 2252 Dundo Angola259,341
- 2253 Nawada India259,262
- 2256 Gillingham United Kingdom258,422
In South Africa, 2025
- 1264 Chief Albert Luthuli Park441,204
- 1668 Edendale342,930
- 1986 Kanyamazane292,211
- 2148 Kimberley271,078
- 2249 Paarl259,665
- 2275 Vanderbijlpark257,093
- 2281 Centurion255,900
- 2445 Somerset West239,943
- 2675 Rustenburg220,723
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 Paarl are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1985 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 Paarl 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