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Sariwon, 
North Korea
404,672 people lived in Sariwon in 2025. It is the 1398th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in North Korea.
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 Sariwon'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 Sariwon grew
Where Sariwon had 10 people in 1975, it had 16.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 411,107 people in 2050.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Sariwon through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Sariwon in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
North Korea · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 104 cities in North Korea in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Pyongyang. The ringed dot in colour is Sariwon; 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, Sariwon covered 24 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 5.1 km² of it. That is 13 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 70%, and its people have grown by 61%.
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 North Korea
Its share of North Korea
Of every 100 people in North Korea in 2025, 2 lived in Sariwon, which is 404,672 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in North Korea, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Sariwon's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1394 Daqing China405,480
- 1395 Jiashan China405,454
- 1396 Hebron Palestine405,079
- 1397 North Richland Hills United States404,680
- 1398 Sariwon404,672
- 1399 Point Cook Australia404,501
- 1400 Wad Madanī Sudan403,988
- 1401 Asaba Nigeria403,859
- 1402 Joharabad Pakistan403,179
In North Korea, 2025
- 172 Pyongyang2,901,588
- 779 Chŏngjin690,409
- 1367 Hamhung412,277
- 1398 Sariwon404,672
- 1525 Wonsan373,596
- 1576 Jakdo-dong363,071
- 1679 Pyŏngsŏng340,370
- 1854 Kanggye310,432
- 3547 Nampo170,683
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 Sariwon 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 Sariwon 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