Topics
Tehran, 
Iran
Tehrān
9,174,964 people lived in Tehran in 2025. It is the 38th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Iran, where it is the capital.
Like every city on this site, Tehran is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
In its own language: Tehrān.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Tehran grew
Where Tehran had 10 people in 1975, it had 21.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 9.5 million people in 2050. It passed five million people between 1975 and 1980.
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
Tehran through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Tehran in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Iran · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Tehran is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Iran in 2025, 210 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, Tehran covered 786 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 250 km² of it. That is 27 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 81%, and its people are 2.2 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 Iran
Its share of Iran
Of every 100 people in Iran in 2025, 10 lived in Tehran, which is 9.2 million people.
How to read this: shrink Iran to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Tehran; 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
- 34 Hajipur India9,941,510
- 35 Rio de Janeiro Brazil9,500,336
- 36 Paris France9,381,921
- 37 Hyderabad India9,190,795
- 38 Tehran9,174,964
- 39 Taipei Taiwan9,136,792
- 40 Bandung Indonesia8,909,104
- 41 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia8,443,731
- 42 Dar es Salaam Tanzania7,795,114
In Iran, 2025
- 38 Tehran9,174,964
- 75 Mashhad5,398,248
- 131 Karaj3,598,661
- 272 Isfahan1,844,409
- 297 Ahwaz1,639,321
- 393 Tabriz1,309,004
- 491 Sarvestan1,039,168
- 523 Kharameh983,056
- 566 Shiraz914,496
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 Tehran 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 Tehran 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