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Poway, 
United States
283,508 people lived in Poway in 2025. It is the 2049th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 68th largest in the United States.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Poway 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 Poway grew
Count 10 people in Poway in 1990 and the same count gives 50.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 336,088 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2020 and 2025. The UN first counts it as a city in 1990, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Poway through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Poway in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Poway 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, Poway covered 129 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 31 km² of it. That is 108 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 10 by 10 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown to 6.8 times its size, and its people are 5.1 times as many.
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 the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 1,000 people in the United States in 2025, 1 lived in Poway, which is 283,508 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in the United States, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Poway's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 2040 La Ceiba Honduras285,756
- 2042 Tacloban Philippines285,095
- 2046 Zakiganj India284,125
- 2048 Cabimas Venezuela283,656
- 2049 Poway283,508
- 2050 Koutiala Mali283,496
- 2053 Awka Nigeria283,069
- 2054 Boisar India283,063
- 2055 Sanhe China282,844
In the United States, 2025
- 1934 Arlington Heights298,081
- 1996 Louisville291,103
- 1998 Euclid290,669
- 2011 Tacoma289,128
- 2049 Poway283,508
- 2076 Copperfield279,805
- 2116 Gaithersburg274,439
- 2176 Bellevue267,696
- 2238 The Woodlands260,732
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 Poway are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 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 Poway 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