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Zanjan, 
Iran
370,993 people lived in Zanjan in 2025. It is the 1539th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 23rd largest in Iran.
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 Zanjan grew
Where Zanjan had 10 people in 1975, it had 35.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 419,085 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 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
Zanjan through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Zanjan in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Iran · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Zanjan is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Iran in 2025, 210 in all, led by Tehran, 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, Zanjan covered 50 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 15 km² of it. That is 39 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.7 times its size, and its people are 3.6 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 Iran
Its share of Iran
Of every 1,000 people in Iran in 2025, 4 lived in Zanjan, which is 370,993 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Iran, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Zanjan's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1535 Oyigbo Nigeria371,913
- 1536 Liuyang China371,661
- 1537 Pasto Colombia371,637
- 1538 Taizhou China371,055
- 1539 Zanjan370,993
- 1540 Muridke Pakistan370,563
- 1541 Dewas India370,472
- 1542 Al-Manshah Egypt370,283
- 1543 Daura Nigeria369,916
In Iran, 2025
- 1274 Ardabil437,757
- 1359 Sareyn413,772
- 1467 Pishva388,154
- 1492 Bandar Abbas381,008
- 1539 Zanjan370,993
- 1544 Qarchak369,782
- 1565 Arak366,442
- 1599 Qazvin355,865
- 1742 Narmashir329,526
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 Zanjan 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 Zanjan 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