Topics
Thessaloniki, 
Greece
749,840 people lived in Thessaloniki in 2025. It is the 716th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Greece.
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 Thessaloniki'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 Thessaloniki grew
For every 10 people in Thessaloniki in 1975, there were 12.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 734,681 people in 2050.
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
Thessaloniki through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Thessaloniki in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Greece · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 8 cities in Greece in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Athens. The ringed dot in colour is Thessaloniki; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Thessaloniki covered 96 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 25 km² of it. That is 34 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 38%, and its people have grown by 23%.
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 Greece
Its share of Greece
Of every 100 people in Greece in 2025, 8 lived in Thessaloniki, which is 749,840 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Greece; the coloured squares live in Thessaloniki. 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
- 712 Kalaburagi India753,963
- 713 Puyang China753,625
- 714 Jiaxing China751,156
- 715 Mersin Türkiye750,396
- 716 Thessaloniki749,840
- 717 Dortmund Germany748,106
- 718 Yichun China745,754
- 719 Damietta Egypt743,111
- 720 La Plata Argentina742,952
In Greece, 2025
- 160 Athens3,101,979
- 716 Thessaloniki749,840
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 Thessaloniki 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 Thessaloniki 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