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Palembang, 
Indonesia
2,132,576 people lived in Palembang in 2025. It is the 237th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 10th largest in Indonesia.
Like every city on this site, Palembang is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Palembang grew
Where Palembang had 10 people in 1975, it had 19.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.1 million 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
Palembang through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Palembang in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Indonesia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Indonesia and its 389 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Jakarta). Palembang 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, Palembang covered 248 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 58 km² of it. That is 27 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 91%, and its people are 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 Indonesia
Its share of Indonesia
Of every 1,000 people in Indonesia in 2025, 7 lived in Palembang, which is 2.1 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Indonesia; the coloured squares live in Palembang. 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
- 233 Belém Brazil2,180,454
- 234 Cixi China2,177,489
- 235 San José Costa Rica2,171,213
- 236 Madurai India2,138,746
- 237 Palembang2,132,576
- 238 Harare Zimbabwe2,117,195
- 239 Banha Egypt2,088,520
- 240 Rabat Morocco2,069,287
- 241 Basra Iraq2,033,553
In Indonesia, 2025
- 179 Yogyakarta2,793,747
- 186 Semarang2,679,349
- 209 Denpasar2,352,734
- 223 Makassar2,255,088
- 237 Palembang2,132,576
- 259 Tarogong1,917,036
- 265 Malang1,899,616
- 282 Slawi1,733,437
- 318 Cirebon1,566,821
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 Palembang 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 Palembang 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