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Ranchi, 
India
1,819,944 people lived in Ranchi in 2025. It is the 274th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 41st largest in India.
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.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Ranchi grew
For every 10 people in Ranchi in 1975, there were 37.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.2 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1995 and 2000.
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
Ranchi through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Ranchi in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
India · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: India and its 2,054 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is New Delhi). Ranchi is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Ranchi covered 206 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 39 km² of it. That is 21 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.8 times its size, and its people are 3.8 times as many.
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
Of every 1,000 people in India in 2025, 1 lived in Ranchi, which is 1.8 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in India; the coloured squares live in Ranchi. 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
- 270 Port-au-Prince Haiti1,868,268
- 271 Benin City Nigeria1,845,432
- 272 Isfahan Iran1,844,409
- 273 Pretoria South Africa1,836,166
- 274 Ranchi1,819,944
- 275 Munich Germany1,815,022
- 276 Beirut Lebanon1,794,019
- 277 Yinchuan China1,792,788
- 278 Xiamen City China1,788,492
In India, 2025
- 246 Mehsi2,018,610
- 247 Nashik1,996,763
- 253 Jamshedpur1,956,840
- 264 Bibhutpur1,904,411
- 274 Ranchi1,819,944
- 283 Aligarh1,729,663
- 287 Dhulian1,699,325
- 295 Visakhapatnam1,641,957
- 298 Bareilly1,635,214
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 Ranchi 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 Ranchi 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