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Zigong, 
China
477,271 people lived in Zigong in 2025. It is the 1164th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 218th 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 Zigong grew
Where Zigong had 10 people in 1975, it had 9.4 in 2025, fewer than it started with.
On the UN's projection it will have 410,978 people in 2050.
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
Zigong through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Zigong in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
China · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Zigong 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, Zigong covered 92 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 17 km² of it. That is 35 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.3 times its size, and its people have fallen by 6%.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in China
Its share of China
Fewer than 1 in every 1,000 people in China lived in Zigong in 2025 — about 1 in 2,941.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1160 Jombang Indonesia478,051
- 1161 Kryvyi Rih Ukraine477,940
- 1162 Gonda India477,697
- 1163 Tomsk Russia477,632
- 1164 Zigong477,271
- 1165 Orlando United States477,249
- 1166 Etawah India475,213
- 1167 Gusau Nigeria475,004
- 1168 Annaba Algeria474,367
In China, 2025
- 1153 Rizhao481,315
- 1155 Huai'an District480,263
- 1157 Gaomi479,056
- 1158 Yulin478,875
- 1164 Zigong477,271
- 1169 Jinzhong473,959
- 1178 Chuxiong471,251
- 1184 Lüliang469,647
- 1187 Changge468,159
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 Zigong 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 Zigong 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