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Quetzaltenango, 
Guatemala
291,105 people lived in Quetzaltenango in 2025. It is the 1995th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Guatemala.
Like every city on this site, Quetzaltenango 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 Quetzaltenango grew
For every 10 people in Quetzaltenango in 1980, there were 52.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 446,130 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2020 and 2025. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, 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
Quetzaltenango through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Quetzaltenango in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Guatemala · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 31 cities in Guatemala in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Guatemala City. The ringed dot in colour is Quetzaltenango; 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, Quetzaltenango covered 86 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 18 km² of it. That is 62 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 3.1 times its size, and its people are 5.3 times as many.
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 Guatemala
Its share of Guatemala
Of every 100 people in Guatemala in 2025, 2 lived in Quetzaltenango, which is 291,105 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Guatemala; the coloured squares live in Quetzaltenango. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1990 Bayannur China291,787
- 1991 Pangkalpinang Indonesia291,683
- 1992 Beledweyne Somalia291,630
- 1994 Cherepovets Russia291,159
- 1995 Quetzaltenango291,105
- 1996 Louisville United States291,103
- 1997 Kursk Russia291,098
- 1998 Euclid United States290,669
- 1999 Nawada India290,657
In Guatemala, 2025
- 175 Guatemala City2,837,708
- 1995 Quetzaltenango291,105
- 2564 Cobán229,017
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 Quetzaltenango are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 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 Quetzaltenango 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