Topics
Tel Aviv, 
Israel
2,642,872 people lived in Tel Aviv in 2025. It is the 190th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Israel.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Tel Aviv 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 Tel Aviv grew
For every 10 people in Tel Aviv in 1975, there were 44.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1985 and 1990.
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
Tel Aviv through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Tel Aviv in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Israel · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Tel Aviv is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Israel in 2025, 25 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, Tel Aviv covered 335 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 82 km² of it. That is 31 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.5 times its size, and its people are 4.4 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 Israel
Its share of Israel
Of every 100 people in Israel in 2025, 28 lived in Tel Aviv, which is 2.6 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Israel, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Tel Aviv's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 186 Semarang Indonesia2,679,349
- 187 Montreal Canada2,668,723
- 188 Izmir Türkiye2,650,237
- 189 Changzhou China2,649,836
- 190 Tel Aviv2,642,872
- 191 Birmingham United Kingdom2,631,757
- 192 Kiev Ukraine2,614,581
- 193 Wuxi China2,613,100
- 194 Milan Italy2,599,022
In Israel, 2025
- 190 Tel Aviv2,642,872
- 563 Jerusalem920,478
- 1143 Haifa484,770
- 2032 Ashdod286,310
- 2039 Modiin-Maccabim-Reut285,763
- 2195 Nazareth265,611
- 2262 Netanya257,714
- 2334 Rehovot249,925
- 2767 Beersheba214,104
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 Tel Aviv 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 Tel Aviv 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