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Shymkent, 
Kazakhstan
1,184,337 people lived in Shymkent in 2025. It is the 437th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Kazakhstan.
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 Shymkent'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 Shymkent grew
Count 10 people in Shymkent in 1975 and the same count gives 46.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2015 and 2020.
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
Shymkent through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Shymkent in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Kazakhstan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 34 cities in Kazakhstan in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Almaty. The ringed dot in colour is Shymkent; 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, Shymkent covered 245 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 71 km² of it. That is 60 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.3 times its size, and its people are 4.7 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 Kazakhstan
Its share of Kazakhstan
Of every 100 people in Kazakhstan in 2025, 6 lived in Shymkent, which is 1.2 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Kazakhstan, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Shymkent's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 433 Jalandhar India1,192,763
- 434 Oran Algeria1,192,410
- 435 Hiroshima Japan1,185,788
- 436 Padang Indonesia1,184,342
- 437 Shymkent1,184,337
- 438 Bandar Lampung Indonesia1,184,054
- 439 Yueqing China1,160,214
- 440 Cabinda Angola1,157,345
- 441 Serrekunda Gambia1,156,903
In Kazakhstan, 2025
- 208 Almaty2,367,611
- 437 Shymkent1,184,337
- 481 Astana1,065,387
- 1351 Aktobe416,455
- 1831 Karaganda313,529
- 1850 Aktau310,607
- 1924 Semey298,847
- 2322 Kyzylorda250,557
- 3335 Taraz180,844
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 Shymkent 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 Shymkent 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