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Smolensk, 
Russia
297,177 people lived in Smolensk in 2025. It is the 1945th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 49th largest in Russia.
Like every city on this site, Smolensk 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 Smolensk grew
For every 10 people in Smolensk in 1975, there were 9.5 in 2025: it shrank.
On the UN's projection it will have 292,309 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
Smolensk through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Smolensk in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Russia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 254 cities in Russia in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Moscow. The ringed dot in colour is Smolensk; 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, Smolensk covered 50 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 11 km² of it. That is 38 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.1 times its size, and its people have fallen by 5%.
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 Russia
Its share of Russia
Of every 1,000 people in Russia in 2025, 2 lived in Smolensk, which is 297,177 people.
How to read this: shrink Russia to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Smolensk; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1941 Pokhara Nepal297,320
- 1942 Coatzacoalcos Mexico297,319
- 1943 Chon Buri Thailand297,276
- 1944 Quy Nhơn Vietnam297,184
- 1945 Smolensk297,177
- 1946 Al-Mahmudiya Egypt297,143
- 1947 Attingal India297,140
- 1948 Moulvibazar Bangladesh297,098
- 1949 Wenjiang China296,976
In Russia, 2025
- 1826 Tambov314,026
- 1892 Rajon Swerdlowski302,890
- 1920 Saransk299,262
- 1927 Novokuznetsk298,733
- 1945 Smolensk297,177
- 1971 Oryol294,739
- 1994 Cherepovets291,159
- 1997 Kursk291,098
- 2091 Murmansk277,693
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 Smolensk 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 Smolensk 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