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Puebla, 
Mexico
1,947,971 people lived in Puebla in 2025. It is the 255th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in Mexico.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Puebla 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 Puebla grew
Count 10 people in Puebla in 1975 and the same count gives 33.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.0 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1985 and 1990.
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
Puebla through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Puebla in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Mexico · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 186 cities in Mexico in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Mexico City. The ringed dot in colour is Puebla; 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, Puebla covered 366 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 111 km² of it. That is 57 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.4 times its size, and its people are 3.4 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 Mexico
Its share of Mexico
Of every 100 people in Mexico in 2025, 1 lived in Puebla, which is 1.9 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Mexico, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Puebla's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 251 Phoenix United States1,972,021
- 252 Sapporo Japan1,964,519
- 253 Jamshedpur India1,956,840
- 254 Minsk Belarus1,950,680
- 255 Puebla1,947,971
- 256 Freetown Sierra Leone1,935,761
- 257 N'Djaména Chad1,934,909
- 258 Beni Democratic Republic of the Congo1,923,700
- 259 Tarogong Indonesia1,917,036
In Mexico, 2025
- 15 Mexico City17,734,212
- 108 Guadalajara4,135,440
- 116 Monterrey3,938,015
- 255 Puebla1,947,971
- 320 Tijuana1,557,695
- 335 Toluca1,505,035
- 371 León1,367,521
- 417 Torreón1,227,850
- 425 Ciudad Juárez1,212,370
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 Puebla 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 Puebla 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