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Purulia, 
India
350,713 people lived in Purulia in 2025. It is the 1633rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 264th largest in India.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Purulia 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 Purulia grew
Where Purulia had 10 people in 1975, it had 16.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 371,530 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1990 and 1995.
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
Purulia through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Purulia in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
India · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 2,054 cities in India in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being New Delhi. The ringed dot in colour is Purulia; 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, Purulia covered 27 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 4.5 km² of it. That is 13 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.5 times its size, and its people have grown by 68%.
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 India
Its share of India
Fewer than 1 in every 1,000 people in India lived in Purulia in 2025 — about 1 in 4,167.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1629 Longueuil Canada351,819
- 1630 Bauru Brazil351,405
- 1631 Mwene-Ditu Democratic Republic of the Congo351,319
- 1632 Xinyang China351,064
- 1633 Purulia350,713
- 1634 Dahod350,660
- 1635 Chimbote Peru350,281
- 1636 Setif Algeria349,825
- 1637 Middlesbrough United Kingdom349,436
In India, 2025
- 1619 Kurukshetra353,119
- 1623 Khurja352,785
- 1625 Madhubani352,336
- 1628 Karimnagar351,832
- 1633 Purulia350,713
- 1634 Dahod350,660
- 1639 Simri348,804
- 1648 Mainpuri347,106
- 1649 Khammam346,533
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 Purulia 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 Purulia 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