Topics
Şanlıurfa, 
Türkiye
739,807 people lived in Şanlıurfa in 2025. It is the 723rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 12th 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 Şanlıurfa grew
For every 10 people in Şanlıurfa in 1975, there were 60.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 767,503 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1995 and 2000.
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
Şanlıurfa through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Şanlıurfa in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Türkiye · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Türkiye and its 177 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Istanbul). Şanlıurfa 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, Şanlıurfa covered 67 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 16 km² of it. That is 21 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.8 times its size, and its people are 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 Türkiye
Its share of Türkiye
Of every 1,000 people in Türkiye in 2025, 8 lived in Şanlıurfa, which is 739,807 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Türkiye; the coloured squares live in Şanlıurfa. 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
- 719 Damietta Egypt743,111
- 720 La Plata Argentina742,952
- 721 Bilbao Spain741,795
- 722 Zinder Niger740,218
- 723 Şanlıurfa739,807
- 724 Bhavnagar India739,115
- 725 Dandong China738,721
- 726 Djibouti Djibouti738,192
- 727 Mexicali Mexico737,963
In Türkiye, 2025
- 542 Konya959,484
- 585 Kayseri882,238
- 694 Eskisehir766,333
- 715 Mersin750,396
- 723 Şanlıurfa739,807
- 729 Kocaeli737,380
- 825 Diyarbakir660,826
- 918 Samsun594,089
- 919 Adana593,872
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 Şanlıurfa 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 Şanlıurfa 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