Topics
Philadelphia, 
United States
2,232,420 people lived in Philadelphia in 2025. It is the 225th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 9th largest in the United States.
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 Philadelphia grew
Where Philadelphia had 10 people in 1975, it had 11.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.3 million 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
Philadelphia through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Philadelphia in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: the United States and its 348 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is New York City). Philadelphia 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, Philadelphia covered 591 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 145 km² of it. That is 65 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 44%, and its people have grown by 17%.
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 the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 1,000 people in the United States in 2025, 6 lived in Philadelphia, which is 2.2 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in the United States; the coloured squares live in Philadelphia. 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
- 221 Denver2,265,994
- 222 Phnom Penh Cambodia2,261,055
- 223 Makassar Indonesia2,255,088
- 224 Ludhiana India2,245,106
- 225 Philadelphia2,232,420
- 226 Fukuoka Japan2,225,078
- 227 Meerut India2,209,886
- 228 Barranquilla Colombia2,208,021
- 229 Macau - Zhuhai Macao2,203,065
In the United States, 2025
- 145 Washington, D.C.3,270,018
- 155 San Francisco3,163,486
- 170 Miami2,912,486
- 221 Denver2,265,994
- 225 Philadelphia2,232,420
- 232 Las Vegas2,183,655
- 251 Phoenix1,972,021
- 260 San Diego1,915,114
- 290 San Antonio1,686,163
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 Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia 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