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Xiangyang, 
China
969,011 people lived in Xiangyang in 2025. It is the 536th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 80th largest in China.
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 Xiangyang grew
For every 10 people in Xiangyang in 1975, there were 97.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 865,780 people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1995 and 2000.
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
Xiangyang through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Xiangyang in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 2,082 cities in China in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Shanghai. The ringed dot in colour is Xiangyang; 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, Xiangyang covered 159 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 35 km² of it. That is 37 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.7 times its size, and its people are 9.7 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, 1 lived in Xiangyang, which is 969,011 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in China; the coloured squares live in Xiangyang. 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
- 532 Malanje Angola973,086
- 533 Glasgow United Kingdom970,320
- 534 Baoding970,162
- 535 Duhok Iraq969,701
- 536 Xiangyang969,011
- 537 Fushan968,359
- 538 Zanzibar City Tanzania966,642
- 539 Dharwad India965,667
- 540 Lilongwe Malawi961,399
In China, 2025
- 522 Linyi987,615
- 527 Zhuzhou979,244
- 531 Guilin973,970
- 534 Baoding970,162
- 536 Xiangyang969,011
- 537 Fushan968,359
- 553 Linfen945,174
- 558 Ma'anshan929,836
- 564 Xuchang916,553
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 Xiangyang 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 Xiangyang 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