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Plovdiv, 
Bulgaria
329,838 people lived in Plovdiv in 2025. It is the 1741st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Bulgaria.
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 Plovdiv grew
Count 10 people in Plovdiv in 1975 and the same count gives 11.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 300,377 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
Plovdiv through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Plovdiv in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Bulgaria · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Plovdiv is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Bulgaria in 2025, 9 in all, led by Sofia, 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, Plovdiv covered 45 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 12 km² of it. That is 35 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 51%, and its people have grown by 13%.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in Bulgaria
Its share of Bulgaria
Of every 100 people in Bulgaria in 2025, 5 lived in Plovdiv, which is 329,838 people.
How to read this: shrink Bulgaria to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Plovdiv; 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
- 1737 Erin-osun Nigeria330,484
- 1738 Xuanwei China330,467
- 1739 Dashiqiao China330,302
- 1740 Riwoto South Sudan330,053
- 1741 Plovdiv329,838
- 1742 Narmashir Iran329,526
- 1743 Greater Noida India329,385
- 1744 Faridpur Bangladesh329,383
- 1745 Kumba Cameroon329,340
In Bulgaria, 2025
- 478 Sofia1,067,136
- 1741 Plovdiv329,838
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 Plovdiv 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 Plovdiv 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