Topics
Zakho, 
Iraq
814,526 people lived in Zakho in 2025. It is the 645th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 12th largest in Iraq.
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 Zakho grew
For every 10 people in Zakho in 1990, there were 122.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.3 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2030 and 2035. 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: 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
Zakho through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Zakho in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Iraq · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Iraq and its 88 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Baghdad). Zakho 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, Zakho covered 60 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 9.7 km² of it. That is 12 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 3 by 3 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown to 5.4 times its size, and its people are 12.3 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 Iraq
Its share of Iraq
Of every 100 people in Iraq in 2025, 2 lived in Zakho, which is 814,526 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Iraq, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Zakho's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 641 Kolhapur India819,671
- 642 Porto-Novo Benin818,617
- 643 Okayama Japan817,266
- 644 Qom Iran815,416
- 645 Zakho814,526
- 646 Munger India814,325
- 647 Nasiriyah813,799
- 648 Al Mushahidah813,506
- 649 Mit Ghamr Egypt812,947
In Iraq, 2025
- 501 Karbala1,022,893
- 535 Duhok969,701
- 569 Sulaymaniyah907,815
- 577 Ad Diwaniyah894,478
- 645 Zakho814,526
- 647 Nasiriyah813,799
- 648 Al Mushahidah813,506
- 836 Amarah645,612
- 960 Jafar Muhammad Ali570,883
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 Zakho 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 Zakho 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