🌍 World Alive

Kolkata — UN urban centre

22,549,738

Kolkata: 22,549,738 people. Reference: 2025 annual estimate · World rank #9 of 12,138 source urban centres. Source: UN DESA, World Urbanization Prospects 2025 (CC BY 3.0 IGO). Source identifier: 11821; territory: India (IND). 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: 22.586, 88.3537. National context uses World Bank estimates, a separate series and geography; no national share is inferred here.

UN population series

YearPeopleMethod
197510,527,605Estimate
198011,830,220Estimate
198513,234,849Estimate
199014,841,167Estimate
199516,321,060Estimate
200018,355,286Estimate
200519,462,171Estimate
201020,487,403Estimate
201521,294,623Estimate
202022,048,672Estimate
202522,549,738Estimate
203023,033,107Projection
203523,450,427Projection
204023,644,780Projection
204523,786,596Projection
205023,767,882Projection

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.