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Santa Marta, 
Colombia
442,455 people lived in Santa Marta in 2025. It is the 1259th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 11th largest in Colombia.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Santa Marta 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 Santa Marta grew
Count 10 people in Santa Marta in 1975 and the same count gives 42.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 526,768 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
Santa Marta through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Santa Marta in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Colombia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Santa Marta is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Colombia in 2025, 81 in all, led by Bogotá, 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, Santa Marta covered 54 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 13 km² of it. That is 30 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.8 times its size, and its people are 4.2 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 Colombia
Its share of Colombia
Of every 1,000 people in Colombia in 2025, 8 lived in Santa Marta, which is 442,455 people.
How to read this: shrink Colombia to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Santa Marta; 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
- 1255 Thanjavur India443,736
- 1256 Irkutsk Russia442,807
- 1257 Bishoftu Ethiopia442,776
- 1258 Nizamabad India442,690
- 1259 Santa Marta442,455
- 1260 Blitar Indonesia442,219
- 1261 Anantapur India442,201
- 1262 Belfast United Kingdom441,925
- 1263 Toyohashi Japan441,665
In Colombia, 2025
- 617 Cúcuta848,408
- 902 Pereira602,831
- 954 Valledupar574,824
- 1122 Ibagué494,316
- 1259 Santa Marta442,455
- 1266 Manizales440,407
- 1272 Buenaventura438,063
- 1484 Villavicencio383,028
- 1537 Pasto371,637
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 Santa Marta 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 Santa Marta 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