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Utrecht, 
Netherlands
519,200 people lived in Utrecht in 2025. It is the 1066th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in the Netherlands.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Utrecht 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 Utrecht grew
Count 10 people in Utrecht in 1975 and the same count gives 21 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 560,888 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 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
Utrecht through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Utrecht in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Netherlands · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Utrecht is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of the Netherlands in 2025, 44 in all, led by Amsterdam, 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, Utrecht covered 115 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 29 km² of it. That is 56 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.5 times its size, and its people are 2.1 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in the Netherlands
Its share of the Netherlands
Of every 100 people in the Netherlands in 2025, 3 lived in Utrecht, which is 519,200 people.
How to read this: shrink the Netherlands to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Utrecht; 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
- 1062 Liling China520,239
- 1063 Constantine Algeria519,932
- 1064 Latur India519,913
- 1065 Liaocheng China519,411
- 1066 Utrecht519,200
- 1067 Bhore India518,289
- 1068 Juiz de Fora Brazil518,218
- 1069 Dongsheng China518,080
- 1070 Satna India517,402
In the Netherlands, 2025
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 Utrecht 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 Utrecht 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