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Shiyan, 
China
992,165 people lived in Shiyan in 2025. It is the 518th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 74th largest in China.
Like every city on this site, Shiyan 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 Shiyan grew
Where Shiyan had 10 people in 1975, it had 62.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 915,238 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1985 and 1990.
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
Shiyan through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Shiyan 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 Shiyan; 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, Shiyan covered 138 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 25 km² of it. That is 25 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 6.6 times its size, and its people are 6.3 times as many.
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 China
Its share of China
Of every 1,000 people in China in 2025, 1 lived in Shiyan, which is 992,165 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 Shiyan's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 514 Mataram Indonesia997,132
- 515 Nara Japan993,952
- 516 Mangaluru India993,566
- 517 San Luis Potosí Mexico992,648
- 518 Shiyan992,165
- 519 Gaya India991,081
- 520 Shunqing990,466
- 521 Porto Portugal990,433
- 522 Linyi987,615
In China, 2025
- 483 Honghuagang1,062,992
- 505 Luohe1,018,295
- 506 Binhai New Area1,017,230
- 512 Jinhua998,519
- 518 Shiyan992,165
- 520 Shunqing990,466
- 522 Linyi987,615
- 527 Zhuzhou979,244
- 531 Guilin973,970
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 Shiyan 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 Shiyan 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