Topics
Santos, 
Brazil
1,027,752 people lived in Santos in 2025. It is the 496th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 19th largest in Brazil.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Santos 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 Santos grew
Where Santos had 10 people in 1975, it had 16 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 997,426 people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2015 and 2020.
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
Santos through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Santos in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Brazil · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 356 cities in Brazil in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being São Paulo. The ringed dot in colour is Santos; 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, Santos covered 143 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 38 km² of it. That is 37 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 57%, and its people have grown by 60%.
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 1,000 people in Brazil in 2025, 5 lived in Santos, which is 1.0 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Brazil; the coloured squares live in Santos. 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
- 492 Barharia India1,038,927
- 493 Thalassery India1,038,647
- 494 Gaza Palestine1,038,285
- 495 Mendoza Argentina1,027,849
- 496 Santos1,027,752
- 497 Quetta Pakistan1,025,211
- 498 Mingora Pakistan1,024,813
- 499 Maceió1,023,645
- 500 Rotterdam Netherlands1,023,590
In Brazil, 2025
- 404 São Luís1,264,379
- 419 Vitória1,226,500
- 471 Natal1,089,473
- 482 João Pessoa1,064,481
- 496 Santos1,027,752
- 499 Maceió1,023,645
- 559 Teresina929,795
- 608 Aracaju859,845
- 631 Campo Grande833,403
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 Santos 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 Santos 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