🌍 World Alive

Fortaleza — UN urban centre

3,244,260

Fortaleza: 3,244,260 people. Reference: 2025 annual estimate · World rank #149 of 12,138 source urban centres. Source: UN DESA, World Urbanization Prospects 2025 (CC BY 3.0 IGO). Source identifier: 8285; territory: Brazil (BRA). 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: -3.777, -38.56. National context uses World Bank estimates, a separate series and geography; no national share is inferred here.

UN population series

YearPeopleMethod
19751,005,917Estimate
19801,369,620Estimate
19851,683,644Estimate
19902,062,616Estimate
19952,313,770Estimate
20002,548,631Estimate
20052,757,662Estimate
20102,950,652Estimate
20153,096,245Estimate
20203,182,707Estimate
20253,244,260Estimate
20303,298,715Projection
20353,341,767Projection
20403,357,837Projection
20453,365,342Projection
20503,352,472Projection

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.