Topics
Phoenix, 
United States
1,972,021 people lived in Phoenix in 2025. It is the 251st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 11th largest in the United States.
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 Phoenix'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 Phoenix grew
Where Phoenix had 10 people in 1985, it had 358.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.7 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2005 and 2010. 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
Phoenix through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Phoenix in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Phoenix is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of the United States in 2025, 348 in all, led by New York City, 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, Phoenix covered 771 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 235 km² of it. That is 119 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 11 by 11 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 25.8 times its size, and its people are 35.8 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 the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 1,000 people in the United States in 2025, 6 lived in Phoenix, which is 2.0 million people.
How to read this: shrink the United States to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Phoenix; 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
- 247 Nashik India1,996,763
- 248 Hohhot China1,993,292
- 249 Santa Cruz de la Sierra Bolivia1,980,432
- 250 Baku Azerbaijan1,977,897
- 251 Phoenix1,972,021
- 252 Sapporo Japan1,964,519
- 253 Jamshedpur India1,956,840
- 254 Minsk Belarus1,950,680
- 255 Puebla Mexico1,947,971
In the United States, 2025
- 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
- 296 Boston1,639,797
- 329 Dallas1,521,118
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 Phoenix 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 Phoenix 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