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Recife, 
Brazil
3,691,196 people lived in Recife in 2025. It is the 124th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in Brazil.
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 Recife grew
Where Recife had 10 people in 1975, it had 20.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.7 million people in 2050.
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
Recife through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Recife in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Brazil · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 356 cities in Brazil in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being São Paulo. The ringed dot in colour is Recife; 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, Recife covered 494 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 104 km² of it. That is 28 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.2 times its size, and its people are 2.1 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 Brazil
Its share of Brazil
Of every 100 people in Brazil in 2025, 2 lived in Recife, which is 3.7 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Brazil, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Recife's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 120 Dakar Senegal3,852,475
- 121 Owerri Nigeria3,833,343
- 122 Ürümqi China3,755,144
- 123 Ibadan Nigeria3,720,721
- 124 Recife3,691,196
- 125 Chicago United States3,683,385
- 126 Brazzaville Republic of the Congo3,656,322
- 127 Melbourne Australia3,639,893
- 128 Qingdao China3,616,657
In Brazil, 2025
- 13 São Paulo18,949,790
- 35 Rio de Janeiro9,500,336
- 105 Belo Horizonte4,162,814
- 124 Recife3,691,196
- 149 Fortaleza3,244,260
- 158 Salvador3,135,157
- 200 Curitiba2,475,352
- 214 Goiânia2,320,596
- 217 Manaus2,277,352
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 Recife 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 Recife 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