Topics
Vancouver, 
Canada
1,707,865 people lived in Vancouver in 2025. It is the 286th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Canada.
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 Vancouver'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 Vancouver grew
For every 10 people in Vancouver in 1975, there were 34 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.9 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1990 and 1995.
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
Vancouver through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Vancouver in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Canada · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 56 cities in Canada in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Toronto. The ringed dot in colour is Vancouver; 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, Vancouver covered 468 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 110 km² of it. That is 64 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 times its size, and its people are 3.4 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in Canada
Its share of Canada
Of every 100 people in Canada in 2025, 4 lived in Vancouver, which is 1.7 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Canada; the coloured squares live in Vancouver. 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
- 282 Slawi Indonesia1,733,437
- 283 Aligarh India1,729,663
- 284 Luoyang China1,727,744
- 285 El Mansura Egypt1,712,781
- 286 Vancouver1,707,865
- 287 Dhulian India1,699,325
- 288 Johor Bahru Malaysia1,695,838
- 289 Mecca Saudi Arabia1,692,152
- 290 San Antonio United States1,686,163
In Canada, 2025
- 74 Toronto5,494,431
- 187 Montreal2,668,723
- 286 Vancouver1,707,865
- 431 Calgary1,197,110
- 524 Edmonton981,522
- 796 Winnipeg679,037
- 900 Ottawa605,121
- 1134 Quebec490,451
- 1226 Surrey454,230
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 Vancouver 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 Vancouver 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