Topics
Salem, 
India
1,337,000 people lived in Salem in 2025. It is the 380th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 61st largest in India.
Like every city on this site, Salem 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 Salem grew
Count 10 people in Salem in 1975 and the same count gives 20.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1990 and 1995.
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
Salem through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Salem in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
India · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 2,054 cities in India in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being New Delhi. The ringed dot in colour is Salem; 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, Salem covered 155 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 34 km² of it. That is 25 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.2 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 India
Its share of India
Of every 1,000 people in India in 2025, 1 lived in Salem, which is 1.3 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in India, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Salem's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 376 Tiruchirappalli1,349,040
- 377 Cochabamba Bolivia1,346,672
- 378 Bishkek Kyrgyzstan1,343,048
- 379 Mysuru1,342,126
- 380 Salem1,337,000
- 381 Novosibirsk Russia1,331,432
- 382 Purwokerto Indonesia1,331,010
- 383 Mardan Pakistan1,330,031
- 384 Cần Thơ Vietnam1,327,741
In India, 2025
- 369 Thrissur1,371,675
- 374 Vijayawada1,351,098
- 376 Tiruchirappalli1,349,040
- 379 Mysuru1,342,126
- 380 Salem1,337,000
- 392 Guwahati1,314,019
- 395 Amritsar1,303,330
- 401 Saharanpur1,275,279
- 408 Tiruppur1,242,837
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 Salem 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 Salem 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