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Wenzhou, 
China
4,158,195 people lived in Wenzhou in 2025. It is the 106th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 18th largest in China.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Wenzhou 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 Wenzhou grew
For every 10 people in Wenzhou in 1975, there were 21.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 4.1 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
Wenzhou through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Wenzhou in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: China and its 2,082 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Shanghai). Wenzhou is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Wenzhou covered 533 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 114 km² of it. That is 27 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.9 times its size, and its people are 2.1 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 China
Its share of China
Of every 1,000 people in China in 2025, 3 lived in Wenzhou, which is 4.2 million people.
How to read this: shrink China to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Wenzhou; 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
- 102 Medan Indonesia4,245,895
- 103 Bamako Mali4,244,881
- 104 Luxor Egypt4,188,023
- 105 Belo Horizonte Brazil4,162,814
- 106 Wenzhou4,158,195
- 107 Sydney Australia4,150,917
- 108 Guadalajara Mexico4,135,440
- 109 Douala Cameroon4,104,516
- 110 Jaipur India4,071,754
In China, 2025
- 77 Xi'an5,231,053
- 86 Zhengzhou4,878,035
- 87 Hefei4,867,000
- 96 Harbin4,376,259
- 106 Wenzhou4,158,195
- 112 Taiyuan4,005,816
- 113 Puning3,989,322
- 122 Ürümqi3,755,144
- 128 Qingdao3,616,657
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 Wenzhou 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 Wenzhou 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