Topics
Paris, 
France
9,381,921 people lived in Paris in 2025. It is the 36th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in France, where it is the capital.
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 Paris'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 Paris grew
Count 10 people in Paris in 1975 and the same count gives 12.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 9.3 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
Paris through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Paris in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
France · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: France and its 71 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Paris 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, Paris covered 1,381 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 372 km² of it. That is 40 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 33%, and its people have grown by 26%.
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 France
Its share of France
Of every 100 people in France in 2025, 14 lived in Paris, which is 9.4 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in France, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Paris's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 32 Lima Peru10,580,241
- 33 London United Kingdom10,416,420
- 34 Hajipur India9,941,510
- 35 Rio de Janeiro Brazil9,500,336
- 36 Paris9,381,921
- 37 Hyderabad India9,190,795
- 38 Tehran Iran9,174,964
- 39 Taipei Taiwan9,136,792
- 40 Bandung Indonesia8,909,104
In France, 2025
- 36 Paris9,381,921
- 429 Lyon1,202,985
- 578 Lille893,282
- 581 Marseille891,463
- 839 Toulouse642,224
- 856 Bordeaux631,551
- 1227 Nantes453,523
- 1345 Nice418,294
- 1424 Strasbourg398,175
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 Paris 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 Paris 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