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Sorong, 
Indonesia
299,181 people lived in Sorong in 2025. It is the 1921st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 67th largest in Indonesia.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Sorong 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 Sorong grew
For every 10 people in Sorong in 1995, there were 39.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 483,774 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2015 and 2020. The UN first counts it as a city in 1995, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Sorong through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Sorong in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Indonesia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 389 cities in Indonesia in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Jakarta. The ringed dot in colour is Sorong; 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, Sorong covered 52 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 7.9 km² of it. That is 26 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1995, its built-up land has grown by 41%, and its people are 4 times as many.
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 Indonesia
Its share of Indonesia
Of every 1,000 people in Indonesia in 2025, 1 lived in Sorong, which is 299,181 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Indonesia; the coloured squares live in Sorong. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1917 Menongue Angola299,802
- 1918 Anantnag India299,385
- 1919 Bukittinggi299,353
- 1920 Saransk Russia299,262
- 1921 Sorong299,181
- 1922 Yongcheng China299,180
- 1923 Bugama Nigeria299,022
- 1924 Semey Kazakhstan298,847
- 1925 Toulon France298,777
In Indonesia, 2025
- 1807 Dumai317,280
- 1836 Kebumen312,542
- 1908 Singaraja300,490
- 1919 Bukittinggi299,353
- 1921 Sorong299,181
- 1932 Bojonegoro298,285
- 1959 Wonosobo295,758
- 1991 Pangkalpinang291,683
- 2056 Pemalang282,807
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 Sorong are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1995 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 Sorong 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