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Poltava, 
Ukraine
242,753 people lived in Poltava in 2025. It is the 2412th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 17th largest in Ukraine.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Poltava governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Poltava grew
For every 10 people in Poltava in 1975, there were 6.8 in 2025: it shrank.
On the UN's projection it will have 215,177 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
Poltava through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Poltava in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ukraine · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Ukraine and its 79 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Kiev). Poltava 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, Poltava covered 59 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 13 km² of it. That is 53 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 49%, and its people have fallen by 32%.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in Ukraine
Its share of Ukraine
Of every 1,000 people in Ukraine in 2025, 6 lived in Poltava, which is 242,753 people.
How to read this: shrink Ukraine to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Poltava; 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
- 2407 Quiha Ethiopia243,110
- 2408 Dapaong Togo242,985
- 2409 Pokhariya Nepal242,966
- 2410 Kambove Democratic Republic of the Congo242,939
- 2412 Poltava242,753
- 2413 Gayara Iraq242,690
- 2414 Khajauli India242,567
- 2417 Kannauj India242,353
- 2419 Monclova Mexico242,237
In Ukraine, 2025
- 1972 Simferopol294,735
- 2263 Kherson257,682
- 2350 Cherkasy248,683
- 2380 Chernihiv244,882
- 2412 Poltava242,753
- 2605 Sevastopol226,028
- 2975 Kropyvnytskyi200,894
- 2987 Makiivka200,425
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 Poltava 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 Poltava 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