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Cities · United States · capital
Washington, D.C., 
United States
3,270,018 people lived in Washington, D.C. in 2025. It is the 145th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 5th largest in the United States, where it is the capital.
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 Washington, D.C. grew
For every 10 people in Washington, D.C. in 1975, there were 31 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.7 million people in 2050.
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
Washington, D.C. through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Washington, D.C. in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 348 cities in the United States in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being New York City. The ringed dot in colour is Washington, D.C.; 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, Washington, D.C. covered 1,186 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 225 km² of it. That is 69 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.2 times its size, and its people are 3.1 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 United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 1,000 people in the United States in 2025, 9 lived in Washington, D.C., which is 3.3 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in the United States; the coloured squares live in Washington, D.C.. 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
- 141 Patna India3,309,383
- 142 Nanchang China3,299,773
- 143 Nanning China3,288,636
- 144 Quanzhou China3,286,129
- 145 Washington, D.C.3,270,018
- 146 Busan South Korea3,263,221
- 147 Nagpur India3,257,841
- 148 Algiers Algeria3,246,400
- 149 Fortaleza Brazil3,244,260
In the United States, 2025
- 22 New York City13,920,148
- 27 Los Angeles12,740,420
- 115 Houston3,955,046
- 125 Chicago3,683,385
- 145 Washington, D.C.3,270,018
- 155 San Francisco3,163,486
- 170 Miami2,912,486
- 221 Denver2,265,994
- 225 Philadelphia2,232,420
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 Washington, D.C. 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 Washington, D.C. 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