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Xining, 
China
1,360,245 people lived in Xining in 2025. It is the 372nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 57th largest in China.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Xining 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 Xining grew
Count 10 people in Xining in 1975 and the same count gives 27.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.3 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2000 and 2005.
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
Xining through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Xining 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). Xining 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, Xining covered 136 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 32 km² of it. That is 23 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.4 times its size, and its people are 2.7 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 Xining, which is 1.4 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in China; the coloured squares live in Xining. 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
- 368 Abuja Nigeria1,373,722
- 369 Thrissur India1,371,675
- 370 Fort Lauderdale United States1,368,027
- 371 León Mexico1,367,521
- 372 Xining1,360,245
- 373 Fez Morocco1,359,989
- 374 Vijayawada India1,351,098
- 375 Huaiyin District1,349,827
- 376 Tiruchirappalli India1,349,040
In China, 2025
- 347 Xiuying District1,458,377
- 349 Jilin City1,448,955
- 360 Xuzhou1,402,001
- 362 Liuzhou1,400,880
- 372 Xining1,360,245
- 375 Huaiyin District1,349,827
- 385 Zhongshan1,326,078
- 388 Anshan1,322,386
- 390 Yichang1,314,779
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 Xining 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 Xining 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