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Zurich, 
Switzerland
689,657 people lived in Zurich in 2025. It is the 783rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Switzerland.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Zurich 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 Zurich grew
Count 10 people in Zurich in 1975 and the same count gives 28 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 744,913 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Zurich through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Zurich in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Switzerland · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Zurich is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Switzerland in 2025, 17 in all, 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, Zurich covered 182 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 34 km² of it. That is 50 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.3 times its size, and its people are 2.8 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 Switzerland
Its share of Switzerland
Of every 100 people in Switzerland in 2025, 8 lived in Zurich, which is 689,657 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Switzerland, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Zurich's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 779 Chŏngjin North Korea690,409
- 780 Cheongju-si South Korea690,333
- 781 Cuito Angola689,795
- 782 Sorocaba Brazil689,775
- 783 Zurich689,657
- 784 Zhoukou China689,599
- 785 Fresno United States685,330
- 786 Beni Suef Egypt684,414
- 787 Okara Pakistan683,747
In Switzerland, 2025
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 Zurich 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 Zurich 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