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Salvador, 
Brazil
3,135,157 people lived in Salvador in 2025. It is the 158th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 6th largest in Brazil.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Salvador governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Salvador grew
Count 10 people in Salvador in 1975 and the same count gives 25.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.0 million people in 2050.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Salvador through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Salvador in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Brazil · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Salvador is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Brazil in 2025, 356 in all, led by São Paulo, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Salvador covered 319 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 71 km² of it. That is 23 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.3 times its size, and its people are 2.6 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, 1 lived in Salvador, which is 3.1 million people.
How to read this: shrink Brazil to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Salvador; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 154 Maputo Mozambique3,166,328
- 155 San Francisco United States3,163,486
- 156 Kalyan-Dombivli India3,163,424
- 157 Guayaquil Ecuador3,157,825
- 158 Salvador3,135,157
- 159 Gujranwala Pakistan3,121,271
- 160 Athens Greece3,101,979
- 161 Ningbo China3,094,833
- 162 Kollam India3,074,562
In Brazil, 2025
- 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
- 233 Belém2,180,454
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Salvador 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 Salvador 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