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Xuanwei, 
China
330,467 people lived in Xuanwei in 2025. It is the 1738th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 319th 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 Xuanwei grew
Where Xuanwei had 10 people in 1990, it had 50 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 319,990 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2010 and 2015. The UN first counts it as a city in 1990, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Xuanwei through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Xuanwei in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Xuanwei is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of China in 2025, 2,082 in all, led by Shanghai, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Xuanwei covered 44 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 8.6 km² of it. That is 26 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown to 6.6 times its size, and its people are 5 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 China
Its share of China
Fewer than 1 in every 1,000 people in China lived in Xuanwei in 2025 — about 1 in 4,348.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1734 Gravataí Brazil330,969
- 1735 Murcia Spain330,966
- 1736 Ikare Nigeria330,941
- 1737 Erin-osun Nigeria330,484
- 1738 Xuanwei330,467
- 1739 Dashiqiao330,302
- 1740 Riwoto South Sudan330,053
- 1741 Plovdiv Bulgaria329,838
- 1742 Narmashir Iran329,526
In China, 2025
- 1715 Jianyang333,938
- 1718 Xuanhua333,650
- 1727 Hui'an332,559
- 1732 Liaoyuan331,469
- 1738 Xuanwei330,467
- 1739 Dashiqiao330,302
- 1749 Shangyu District328,545
- 1750 Ya'an328,287
- 1755 Baoshan327,416
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 Xuanwei are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 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 Xuanwei 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