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Sapporo, 
Japan
1,964,519 people lived in Sapporo in 2025. It is the 252nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 5th largest in Japan.
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 Sapporo'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 Sapporo grew
For every 10 people in Sapporo in 1975, there were 12.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.8 million people in 2050.
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
Sapporo through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Sapporo in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Japan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 137 cities in Japan in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Tokyo. The ringed dot in colour is Sapporo; 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, Sapporo covered 346 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 113 km² of it. That is 58 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 37%, and its people have grown by 29%.
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 Japan
Its share of Japan
Of every 100 people in Japan in 2025, 2 lived in Sapporo, which is 2.0 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Japan; the coloured squares live in Sapporo. 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
- 248 Hohhot China1,993,292
- 249 Santa Cruz de la Sierra Bolivia1,980,432
- 250 Baku Azerbaijan1,977,897
- 251 Phoenix United States1,972,021
- 252 Sapporo1,964,519
- 253 Jamshedpur India1,956,840
- 254 Minsk Belarus1,950,680
- 255 Puebla Mexico1,947,971
- 256 Freetown Sierra Leone1,935,761
In Japan, 2025
- 3 Tokyo33,412,512
- 25 Osaka12,964,145
- 49 Nagoya7,146,160
- 226 Fukuoka2,225,078
- 252 Sapporo1,964,519
- 406 Sendai1,256,440
- 428 Kitakyushu1,206,731
- 435 Hiroshima1,185,788
- 484 Naha1,060,017
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 Sapporo 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 Sapporo 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