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Sao Goncalo, 
Brazil
1,679,246 people lived in Sao Goncalo in 2025. It is the 292nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 12th largest in Brazil.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Sao Goncalo's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Sao Goncalo grew
Where Sao Goncalo had 10 people in 1975, it had 18.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.7 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1975 and 1980.
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
Sao Goncalo through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Sao Goncalo in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Brazil · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Sao Goncalo 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, Sao Goncalo covered 305 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 74 km² of it. That is 44 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.4 times its size, and its people have grown by 87%.
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 Brazil
Its share of Brazil
Of every 1,000 people in Brazil in 2025, 8 lived in Sao Goncalo, which is 1.7 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Brazil, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Sao Goncalo's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 288 Johor Bahru Malaysia1,695,838
- 289 Mecca Saudi Arabia1,692,152
- 290 San Antonio United States1,686,163
- 291 Nantong China1,684,417
- 292 Sao Goncalo1,679,246
- 293 Mosul Iraq1,665,214
- 294 Pointe-Noire Republic of the Congo1,662,537
- 295 Visakhapatnam India1,641,957
- 296 Boston United States1,639,797
In Brazil, 2025
- 214 Goiânia2,320,596
- 217 Manaus2,277,352
- 233 Belém2,180,454
- 281 Porto Alegre1,755,917
- 292 Sao Goncalo1,679,246
- 299 Campinas1,631,432
- 328 Brasília1,521,148
- 404 São Luís1,264,379
- 419 Vitória1,226,500
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 Sao Goncalo 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 Sao Goncalo 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