Topics
Riga, 
Latvia
550,267 people lived in Riga in 2025. It is the 1000th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Latvia, where it is the capital.
Like every city on this site, Riga 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 Riga grew
Count 10 people in Riga in 1975 and the same count gives 7.8 in 2025 — the city lost people.
On the UN's projection it will have 484,739 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
Riga through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Riga in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Latvia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Latvia and its 3 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Riga 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, Riga covered 146 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 29 km² of it. That is 52 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 34%, and its people have fallen by 22%.
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 Latvia
Its share of Latvia
Of every 100 people in Latvia in 2025, 30 lived in Riga, which is 550,267 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Latvia; the coloured squares live in Riga. 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
- 996 Azamgarh India551,621
- 997 Luhe China551,106
- 998 Boumerdes Algeria550,700
- 999 Bahraich India550,317
- 1000 Riga550,267
- 1001 Sheffield United Kingdom549,695
- 1002 Purwakarta Indonesia549,480
- 1003 Kikwit Democratic Republic of the Congo549,102
- 1004 Port Louis Mauritius549,015
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 Riga 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 Riga 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