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Shenyang, 
China
5,702,638 people lived in Shenyang in 2025. It is the 67th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 13th largest in China.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Shenyang 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 Shenyang grew
Where Shenyang had 10 people in 1975, it had 14.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 5.1 million people in 2050. It passed five million people between 2005 and 2010.
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
Shenyang through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Shenyang in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 2,082 cities in China in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Shanghai. The ringed dot in colour is Shenyang; 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, Shenyang covered 481 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 160 km² of it. That is 28 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.2 times its size, and its people have grown by 48%.
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 China
Its share of China
Of every 1,000 people in China in 2025, 4 lived in Shenyang, which is 5.7 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in China, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Shenyang's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 63 Baghdad Iraq6,390,735
- 64 Chengdu6,139,874
- 65 Nairobi Kenya6,134,334
- 66 Kozhikode India6,123,872
- 67 Shenyang5,702,638
- 68 Kabul Afghanistan5,635,737
- 69 Onitsha Nigeria5,627,706
- 70 Yangon Myanmar5,618,303
- 71 Accra Ghana5,592,780
In China, 2025
- 51 Chongqing7,071,073
- 57 Nanjing6,800,676
- 61 Chaozhou6,407,770
- 64 Chengdu6,139,874
- 67 Shenyang5,702,638
- 77 Xi'an5,231,053
- 86 Zhengzhou4,878,035
- 87 Hefei4,867,000
- 96 Harbin4,376,259
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 Shenyang 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 Shenyang 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