Topics
Porto, 
Portugal
990,433 people lived in Porto in 2025. It is the 521st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Portugal.
Like every city on this site, Porto is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Porto grew
Where Porto had 10 people in 1975, it had 14.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 868,230 people in 2050.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Porto through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Porto in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Portugal · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 9 cities in Portugal in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Lisbon. The ringed dot in colour is Porto; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Porto covered 289 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 55 km² of it. That is 56 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 73%, and its people have grown by 44%.
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 Portugal
Its share of Portugal
Of every 100 people in Portugal in 2025, 10 lived in Porto, which is 990,433 people.
How to read this: shrink Portugal to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Porto; 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
- 517 San Luis Potosí Mexico992,648
- 518 Shiyan China992,165
- 519 Gaya India991,081
- 520 Shunqing China990,466
- 521 Porto990,433
- 522 Linyi China987,615
- 523 Kharameh Iran983,056
- 524 Edmonton Canada981,522
- 525 Jambi Indonesia980,534
In Portugal, 2025
- 261 Lisbon1,913,798
- 521 Porto990,433
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 Porto 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 Porto 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