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Sterling Heights, 
United States
435,980 people lived in Sterling Heights in 2025. It is the 1284th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 42nd largest in the United States.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights grew
Where Sterling Heights had 10 people in 1975, it had 9.1 in 2025, fewer than it started with.
On the UN's projection it will have 384,498 people in 2050.
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
Sterling Heights through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Sterling Heights in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: the United States and its 348 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is New York City). Sterling Heights is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Sterling Heights covered 239 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 57 km² of it. That is 132 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 11 by 11 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 13%, and its people have fallen by 9%.
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 the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 1,000 people in the United States in 2025, 1 lived in Sterling Heights, which is 435,980 people.
How to read this: shrink the United States to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Sterling Heights; 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
- 1280 Chiayi Taiwan436,393
- 1281 Oron Nigeria436,247
- 1282 Guang'an China436,199
- 1283 Pabna Bangladesh436,119
- 1284 Sterling Heights435,980
- 1285 Sambhal India435,760
- 1286 Gaozhou China435,368
- 1287 Seremban Malaysia434,530
- 1288 Bhilwara India434,406
In the United States, 2025
- 1136 Provo488,429
- 1165 Orlando477,249
- 1202 West Valley City463,325
- 1212 Atlanta458,225
- 1284 Sterling Heights435,980
- 1302 Providence429,694
- 1329 Tucson422,107
- 1356 Escondido415,167
- 1373 Albuquerque410,810
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 Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights 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