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São Luís, 
Brazil
1,264,379 people lived in São Luís in 2025. It is the 404th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 15th largest in Brazil.
Like every city on this site, São Luís is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How São Luís grew
For every 10 people in São Luís in 1975, there were 60.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.4 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2000 and 2005.
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
São Luís through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in São Luís 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 São Luís; 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, São Luís covered 245 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 26 km² of it. That is 20 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 6.1 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 Brazil
Its share of Brazil
Of every 1,000 people in Brazil in 2025, 6 lived in São Luís, which is 1.3 million people.
How to read this: shrink Brazil to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in São Luís; 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
- 400 Lubango Angola1,280,986
- 401 Saharanpur India1,275,279
- 402 Antalya Türkiye1,273,822
- 403 Al-Najaf Iraq1,273,450
- 404 São Luís1,264,379
- 405 Herat Afghanistan1,259,425
- 406 Sendai Japan1,256,440
- 407 Bujumbura Burundi1,246,960
- 408 Tiruppur India1,242,837
In Brazil, 2025
- 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
- 471 Natal1,089,473
- 482 João Pessoa1,064,481
- 496 Santos1,027,752
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 São Luís 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 São Luís 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