Topics
Cities · North Korea · capital
Pyongyang, 
North Korea
P'yŏngyang
2,901,588 people lived in Pyongyang in 2025. It is the 172nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in North Korea, where it is the capital.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
In its own language: P'yŏngyang.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Pyongyang grew
For every 10 people in Pyongyang in 1975, there were 19.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.8 million people in 2050.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Pyongyang through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Pyongyang in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
North Korea · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Pyongyang is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of North Korea in 2025, 104 in all, 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, Pyongyang covered 224 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 49 km² of it. That is 17 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 times its size, and its people are 2 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 North Korea
Its share of North Korea
Of every 100 people in North Korea in 2025, 11 lived in Pyongyang, which is 2.9 million people.
How to read this: shrink North Korea to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Pyongyang; 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
- 168 Aleppo Syria2,922,277
- 169 Brahmanbaria Bangladesh2,914,727
- 170 Miami United States2,912,486
- 171 Fuzhou China2,910,985
- 172 Pyongyang2,901,588
- 173 Tamluk India2,894,484
- 174 Hyderabad Pakistan2,863,633
- 175 Guatemala City Guatemala2,837,708
- 176 Lubumbashi Democratic Republic of the Congo2,832,853
In North Korea, 2025
- 172 Pyongyang2,901,588
- 779 Chŏngjin690,409
- 1367 Hamhung412,277
- 1398 Sariwon404,672
- 1525 Wonsan373,596
- 1576 Jakdo-dong363,071
- 1679 Pyŏngsŏng340,370
- 1854 Kanggye310,432
- 3547 Nampo170,683
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 Pyongyang 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 Pyongyang 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