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Xiantao, 
China
297,859 people lived in Xiantao in 2025. It is the 1938th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 357th 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 Xiantao grew
Where Xiantao had 10 people in 1975, it had 15.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 231,223 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Xiantao through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Xiantao 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). Xiantao 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, Xiantao covered 70 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 15 km² of it. That is 51 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4 times its size, and its people have grown by 51%.
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 China
Its share of China
Fewer than 1 in every 1,000 people in China lived in Xiantao in 2025 — about 1 in 4,762.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1932 Bojonegoro Indonesia298,285
- 1934 Arlington Heights United States298,081
- 1935 Guigang298,077
- 1937 Shengzhou297,906
- 1938 Xiantao297,859
- 1939 Karur India297,598
- 1940 Siguiri Guinea297,453
- 1941 Pokhara Nepal297,320
- 1942 Coatzacoalcos Mexico297,319
In China, 2025
- 1922 Yongcheng299,180
- 1931 Baochi298,433
- 1935 Guigang298,077
- 1937 Shengzhou297,906
- 1938 Xiantao297,859
- 1949 Wenjiang296,976
- 1958 Renqiu295,917
- 1963 Pinghu295,531
- 1966 Hechuan295,189
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Xiantao 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 Xiantao 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