Topics
Valencia, 
Spain
1,390,045 people lived in Valencia in 2025. It is the 366th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Spain.
Like every city on this site, Valencia 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 Valencia grew
For every 10 people in Valencia in 1975, there were 14.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.4 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
Valencia through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Valencia in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Spain · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 84 cities in Spain in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Madrid. The ringed dot in colour is Valencia; 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, Valencia covered 209 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 45 km² of it. That is 33 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.1 times its size, and its people have grown by 48%.
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 Spain
Its share of Spain
Of every 100 people in Spain in 2025, 3 lived in Valencia, which is 1.4 million people.
How to read this: shrink Spain to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Valencia; 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
- 362 Liuzhou China1,400,880
- 363 Mesa United States1,398,369
- 364 Portland United States1,397,788
- 365 Durg India1,393,235
- 366 Valencia1,390,045
- 367 Aboh Nigeria1,374,320
- 368 Abuja Nigeria1,373,722
- 369 Thrissur India1,371,675
- 370 Fort Lauderdale United States1,368,027
In Spain, 2025
- 72 Madrid5,583,601
- 114 Barcelona3,982,704
- 366 Valencia1,390,045
- 721 Bilbao741,795
- 769 Seville699,504
- 934 Zaragoza585,533
- 1057 Málaga521,854
- 1173 Palma de Mallorca473,499
- 1428 Alicante397,948
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 Valencia 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 Valencia 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