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Thiruvananthapuram, 
India
2,946,119 people lived in Thiruvananthapuram in 2025. It is the 166th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 22nd largest in India.
Like every city on this site, Thiruvananthapuram is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Thiruvananthapuram grew
For every 10 people in Thiruvananthapuram in 1975, there were 35.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.2 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1975 and 1980.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Thiruvananthapuram through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Thiruvananthapuram in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
India · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: India and its 2,054 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is New Delhi). Thiruvananthapuram 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, Thiruvananthapuram covered 374 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 65 km² of it. That is 22 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 5.2 times its size, and its people are 3.5 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 India
Its share of India
Of every 1,000 people in India in 2025, 2 lived in Thiruvananthapuram, which is 2.9 million people.
How to read this: shrink India to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Thiruvananthapuram; 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
- 162 Kollam3,074,562
- 163 Cebu City Philippines3,044,564
- 164 Shijiazhuang China2,990,397
- 165 Multan Pakistan2,956,642
- 166 Thiruvananthapuram2,946,119
- 167 Asansol2,924,741
- 168 Aleppo Syria2,922,277
- 169 Brahmanbaria Bangladesh2,914,727
- 170 Miami United States2,912,486
In India, 2025
- 141 Patna3,309,383
- 147 Nagpur3,257,841
- 156 Kalyan-Dombivli3,163,424
- 162 Kollam3,074,562
- 166 Thiruvananthapuram2,946,119
- 167 Asansol2,924,741
- 173 Tamluk2,894,484
- 180 Agra2,786,762
- 199 Bhopal2,487,205
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Thiruvananthapuram 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 Thiruvananthapuram 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