🌍 World Alive

Dhaka — UN urban centre

36,585,479

Dhaka: 36,585,479 people. Reference: 2025 annual estimate · World rank #2 of 12,138 source urban centres. Source: UN DESA, World Urbanization Prospects 2025 (CC BY 3.0 IGO). Source identifier: 6249; territory: Bangladesh (BGD). UN source workbook.

Method: Degree of Urbanisation (contiguous 1 km2 cells, density 1,500+ people/km2, total 50,000+). This is a source-defined urban centre, not a municipality or province. No association with a separate administrative entity is inferred from proximity or name.

Source centroid: 23.7517, 90.5792. National context uses World Bank estimates, a separate series and geography; no national share is inferred here.

UN population series

YearPeopleMethod
19755,037,174Estimate
19806,430,888Estimate
19858,361,623Estimate
199010,965,513Estimate
199513,683,256Estimate
200017,434,596Estimate
200520,992,712Estimate
201024,560,379Estimate
201528,339,424Estimate
202032,635,931Estimate
202536,585,479Estimate
203040,803,862Projection
203544,409,883Projection
204047,360,848Projection
204549,829,850Projection
205052,122,843Projection

Largest UN urban centres · Fastest-growing urban centres

What changed during your lifetime?

Turn these figures into a private, five-scene personal world story.

Use this source record with the right definition

This page is a structured reference entry. Its sources, geographic definition and reference dates determine what the figures mean; it is not independent reporting about the causes of change. Read the accompanying explanation before comparing different places or vintages.

Why an urban centre is not a municipality →

Interpretation reviewed 12 October 2026. Underlying reference years are stated on the page; this is not a fresh census or dataset refresh.