🌍 World Alive

Recife — UN urban centre

3,691,196

Recife: 3,691,196 people. Reference: 2025 annual estimate · World rank #124 of 12,138 source urban centres. Source: UN DESA, World Urbanization Prospects 2025 (CC BY 3.0 IGO). Source identifier: 8535; 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: -8.0462, -34.9208. National context uses World Bank estimates, a separate series and geography; no national share is inferred here.

UN population series

YearPeopleMethod
19751,793,038Estimate
19802,017,116Estimate
19852,301,777Estimate
19902,562,281Estimate
19952,778,409Estimate
20002,989,642Estimate
20053,117,169Estimate
20103,266,014Estimate
20153,477,615Estimate
20203,637,086Estimate
20253,691,196Estimate
20303,729,876Projection
20353,748,369Projection
20403,748,173Projection
20453,736,578Projection
20503,702,361Projection

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.