Topics
Palu, 
Indonesia
348,948 people lived in Palu in 2025. It is the 1638th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 56th largest in Indonesia.
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 Palu grew
Where Palu had 10 people in 1975, it had 33.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 402,377 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2005 and 2010.
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
Palu through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Palu in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Indonesia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Palu is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Indonesia in 2025, 389 in all, led by Jakarta, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Palu covered 78 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 18 km² of it. That is 52 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 61%, and its people are 3.4 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 Indonesia
Its share of Indonesia
Of every 1,000 people in Indonesia in 2025, 1 lived in Palu, which is 348,948 people.
How to read this: shrink Indonesia to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Palu; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1634 Dahod India350,660
- 1635 Chimbote Peru350,281
- 1636 Setif Algeria349,825
- 1637 Middlesbrough United Kingdom349,436
- 1638 Palu348,948
- 1639 Simri India348,804
- 1640 Sakarya Türkiye348,302
- 1641 Narowal Pakistan348,144
- 1642 Gaoyou China348,058
In Indonesia, 2025
- 1430 Madiun397,871
- 1460 Rangkasbitung389,934
- 1501 Bengkulu378,066
- 1510 Timika375,910
- 1638 Palu348,948
- 1665 Banda Aceh343,382
- 1706 Duri335,728
- 1707 Indramayu335,572
- 1767 Sumedang324,936
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 Palu 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 Palu 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