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Sofia, 
Bulgaria
1,067,136 people lived in Sofia in 2025. It is the 478th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Bulgaria, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Sofia 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 Sofia grew
Where Sofia had 10 people in 1975, it had 13.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 970,901 people in 2050. It passed a 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
Sofia through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Sofia in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Bulgaria · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Sofia is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Bulgaria in 2025, 9 in all, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Sofia covered 197 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 42 km² of it. That is 39 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 times its size, and its people have grown by 32%.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in Bulgaria
Its share of Bulgaria
Of every 100 people in Bulgaria in 2025, 16 lived in Sofia, which is 1.1 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Bulgaria, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Sofia's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 474 Perth Australia1,079,374
- 475 Khulna Bangladesh1,074,134
- 476 Brisbane Australia1,071,628
- 477 Zhangjiagang China1,068,192
- 478 Sofia1,067,136
- 479 Rostov-on-Don Russia1,065,880
- 480 Leeds United Kingdom1,065,607
- 481 Astana Kazakhstan1,065,387
- 482 João Pessoa Brazil1,064,481
In Bulgaria, 2025
- 478 Sofia1,067,136
- 1741 Plovdiv329,838
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 Sofia 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 Sofia 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