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Sungai Petani, 
Malaysia
310,566 people lived in Sungai Petani in 2025. It is the 1852nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 15th largest in Malaysia.
Like every city on this site, Sungai Petani 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 Sungai Petani grew
Count 10 people in Sungai Petani in 1975 and the same count gives 29.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 352,321 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Sungai Petani through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Sungai Petani in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Malaysia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 42 cities in Malaysia in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Kuala Lumpur. The ringed dot in colour is Sungai Petani; 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, Sungai Petani covered 96 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 20 km² of it. That is 64 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.1 times its size, and its people are 3 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 Malaysia
Its share of Malaysia
Of every 1,000 people in Malaysia in 2025, 9 lived in Sungai Petani, which is 310,566 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Malaysia; the coloured squares live in Sungai Petani. 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
- 1848 Cluj-Napoca Romania310,650
- 1849 Gorgan Iran310,644
- 1850 Aktau Kazakhstan310,607
- 1851 Campos dos Goytacazes Brazil310,590
- 1852 Sungai Petani310,566
- 1853 Emeishan China310,503
- 1854 Kanggye North Korea310,432
- 1855 Yuanlin City Taiwan310,380
- 1856 Beed India310,278
In Malaysia, 2025
- 1412 Sandakan400,980
- 1515 Tawau375,573
- 1527 Kuantan373,353
- 1759 Kuala Terengganu326,615
- 1852 Sungai Petani310,566
How to read this: the number before each name is its place among all 12,138 cities in the world in 2025; bars are people, on one scale per list. Only cities that reach 300,000 people have a page here, so a gap in the numbers is a smaller city.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Sungai Petani 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 Sungai Petani 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