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Taipei, 
Taiwan
9,136,792 people lived in Taipei in 2025. It is the 39th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Taiwan, where it is the capital.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Taipei's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Taipei grew
Count 10 people in Taipei in 1975 and the same count gives 24.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 8.2 million people in 2050. It passed five million people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Taipei through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Taipei in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Taiwan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Taipei is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Taiwan in 2025, 21 in all, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Taipei covered 937 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 216 km² of it. That is 24 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.4 times its size, and its people are 2.5 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 Taiwan
Its share of Taiwan
Of every 100 people in Taiwan in 2025, 40 lived in Taipei, which is 9.1 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Taiwan, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Taipei's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 35 Rio de Janeiro Brazil9,500,336
- 36 Paris France9,381,921
- 37 Hyderabad India9,190,795
- 38 Tehran Iran9,174,964
- 39 Taipei9,136,792
- 40 Bandung Indonesia8,909,104
- 41 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia8,443,731
- 42 Dar es Salaam Tanzania7,795,114
- 43 Suzhou China7,731,101
In Taiwan, 2025
- 39 Taipei9,136,792
- 220 Taichung2,268,685
- 231 Kaohsiung2,187,455
- 526 Tainan979,987
- 773 Hsinchu695,677
- 1206 Zhanghua City461,552
- 1280 Chiayi436,393
- 1855 Yuanlin City310,380
- 3451 Pingtung City175,377
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Taipei 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 Taipei 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