Topics
Pokhara, 
Nepal
297,320 people lived in Pokhara in 2025. It is the 1941st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Nepal.
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 Pokhara'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 Pokhara grew
Count 10 people in Pokhara in 1980 and the same count gives 46.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 332,129 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2005 and 2010. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, 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
Pokhara through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Pokhara in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Nepal · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Nepal and its 19 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Kathmandu). Pokhara 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, Pokhara covered 53 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 11 km² of it. That is 38 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 8.6 times its size, and its people are 2.9 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 Nepal
Its share of Nepal
Of every 100 people in Nepal in 2025, 1 lived in Pokhara, which is 297,320 people.
How to read this: shrink Nepal to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Pokhara; 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
- 1937 Shengzhou China297,906
- 1938 Xiantao China297,859
- 1939 Karur India297,598
- 1940 Siguiri Guinea297,453
- 1941 Pokhara297,320
- 1942 Coatzacoalcos Mexico297,319
- 1943 Chon Buri Thailand297,276
- 1944 Quy Nhơn Vietnam297,184
- 1945 Smolensk Russia297,177
In Nepal, 2025
- 150 Kathmandu3,231,516
- 1420 Biratnagar398,453
- 1941 Pokhara297,320
- 2409 Pokhariya242,966
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 Pokhara are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 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 Pokhara 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