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Surakarta, 
Indonesia
1,538,599 people lived in Surakarta in 2025. It is the 326th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 15th largest in Indonesia.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Surakarta 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 Surakarta grew
Count 10 people in Surakarta in 1975 and the same count gives 11.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.3 million 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
Surakarta through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Surakarta in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Indonesia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Indonesia and its 389 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Jakarta). Surakarta 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, Surakarta covered 388 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 72 km² of it. That is 46 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 87%, and its people have grown by 17%.
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 Indonesia
Its share of Indonesia
Of every 1,000 people in Indonesia in 2025, 5 lived in Surakarta, which is 1.5 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Indonesia; the coloured squares live in Surakarta. 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
- 322 Davao City Philippines1,546,026
- 323 Vasai-Virar India1,542,177
- 324 Mandalay Myanmar1,541,309
- 325 Manama Bahrain1,538,872
- 326 Surakarta1,538,599
- 327 Panama City Panama1,527,393
- 328 Brasília Brazil1,521,148
- 329 Dallas United States1,521,118
- 330 Gorakhpur India1,519,206
In Indonesia, 2025
- 259 Tarogong1,917,036
- 265 Malang1,899,616
- 282 Slawi1,733,437
- 318 Cirebon1,566,821
- 326 Surakarta1,538,599
- 338 Batam City1,500,354
- 382 Purwokerto1,331,010
- 386 Samarinda1,325,554
- 427 Pekanbaru1,208,872
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 Surakarta 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 Surakarta 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