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Tijuana, 
Mexico
1,557,695 people lived in Tijuana in 2025. It is the 320th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 5th largest in Mexico.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Tijuana grew
Where Tijuana had 10 people in 1975, it had 167.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.7 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1995 and 2000.
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
Tijuana through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Tijuana in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Mexico · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 186 cities in Mexico in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Mexico City. The ringed dot in colour is Tijuana; 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, Tijuana covered 294 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 74 km² of it. That is 48 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 32.3 times its size, and its people are 16.7 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 Mexico
Its share of Mexico
Of every 100 people in Mexico in 2025, 1 lived in Tijuana, which is 1.6 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Mexico; the coloured squares live in Tijuana. 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
- 316 Uyo Nigeria1,567,115
- 317 Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar India1,567,020
- 318 Cirebon Indonesia1,566,821
- 319 Nouakchott Mauritania1,561,617
- 320 Tijuana1,557,695
- 321 Gwalior India1,554,246
- 322 Davao City Philippines1,546,026
- 323 Vasai-Virar India1,542,177
- 324 Mandalay Myanmar1,541,309
In Mexico, 2025
- 15 Mexico City17,734,212
- 108 Guadalajara4,135,440
- 116 Monterrey3,938,015
- 255 Puebla1,947,971
- 320 Tijuana1,557,695
- 335 Toluca1,505,035
- 371 León1,367,521
- 417 Torreón1,227,850
- 425 Ciudad Juárez1,212,370
How to read this: the number before each name is its place among all 12,138 cities in the world in 2025; bars are people, on one scale per list. Only cities that reach 300,000 people have a page here, so a gap in the numbers is a smaller city.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Tijuana 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 Tijuana 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