Topics
Samsun, 
Türkiye
594,089 people lived in Samsun in 2025. It is the 918th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 15th largest in Türkiye.
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 Samsun grew
For every 10 people in Samsun in 1975, there were 35.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 522,603 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1985 and 1990.
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
Samsun through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Samsun in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Türkiye · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Samsun is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Türkiye in 2025, 177 in all, led by Istanbul, 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, Samsun covered 73 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 14 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 by 67%, and its people are 3.6 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 Türkiye
Its share of Türkiye
Of every 1,000 people in Türkiye in 2025, 7 lived in Samsun, which is 594,089 people.
How to read this: shrink Türkiye to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Samsun; 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
- 914 Huaibei China596,613
- 915 Huiyang China596,451
- 916 Ogale Nigeria595,099
- 917 Katsina Nigeria594,775
- 918 Samsun594,089
- 919 Adana593,872
- 920 Latakia Syria591,300
- 921 Yongchuan China590,694
- 922 Van590,314
In Türkiye, 2025
- 715 Mersin750,396
- 723 Şanlıurfa739,807
- 729 Kocaeli737,380
- 825 Diyarbakir660,826
- 918 Samsun594,089
- 919 Adana593,872
- 922 Van590,314
- 970 Kahramanmaraş565,732
- 977 Denizli561,327
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 Samsun 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 Samsun 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