Topics
Tacoma, 
United States
289,128 people lived in Tacoma in 2025. It is the 2011th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 66th largest in the United States.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Tacoma 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 Tacoma grew
Where Tacoma had 10 people in 1995, it had 43.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 410,214 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2010 and 2015. 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: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Tacoma through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Tacoma 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). Tacoma 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, Tacoma covered 140 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 31 km² of it. That is 109 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 10 by 10 metres. Since 1995, its built-up land has grown to 3.9 times its size, and its people are 4.4 times as many.
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 the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 1,000 people in the United States in 2025, 1 lived in Tacoma, which is 289,128 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 Tacoma; 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
- 2007 Okrika Nigeria289,429
- 2008 Maheshkhunt India289,419
- 2009 Banda India289,334
- 2010 Qamishli Syria289,200
- 2011 Tacoma289,128
- 2012 Kombolcha Ethiopia288,941
- 2013 Mayiladuthurai India288,923
- 2017 Huilai China288,590
- 2018 Weinan China288,582
In the United States, 2025
- 1903 Hammond301,148
- 1934 Arlington Heights298,081
- 1996 Louisville291,103
- 1998 Euclid290,669
- 2011 Tacoma289,128
- 2049 Poway283,508
- 2076 Copperfield279,805
- 2116 Gaithersburg274,439
- 2176 Bellevue267,696
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 Tacoma 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 Tacoma 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