Rank U.S. cities by July 1, 2025 population. See exact Census estimates, the largest places, national shares, growth context and downloadable rankings.
New York leads this resident population ranking with 8,584,629 residents. The reference population is July 1, 2025.
New York, New York leads this ranking with 8,584,629 residents on July 1, 2025. Los Angeles, California follows with 3,869,089; the gap between them is 4,715,540 people. The ten largest cities together have 26,134,516 residents, equivalent to 7.65% of the national resident total.
That share is a descriptive comparison using matching dates and the same national universe. Incorporated places do not contain every U.S. resident, and whole-place observations must not be added to overlapping county or metro populations. The share does not classify the rest of the country as rural.
Population size and growth tell different stories
The largest city in 2025 lost 166,559 residents between July 1, 2020 and July 1, 2025, a 1.90% decline. Its most recent one-year change was a loss of 12,196 residents. A high position in a population-size ranking does not imply a high position in a growth ranking.
For a comparison over time, use the six-year history on the place profile or the population comparison tool. A current ranking orders a single July 1 observation. It does not establish an all-time peak, a historical rank in an unsupported year or the size of a metropolitan area.
Comparison universe: Active whole incorporated-place records (SUMLEV 162); consolidated-government balances are excluded. Source: PEP Vintage 2025. Population date: July 1, 2025. Growth interval: July 1, 2024–2025. Ties share a competition rank; subsequent ranks skip tied positions. Filters produce a subset of this universe and do not change the national profile rank.
City proper, consolidated balances and metropolitan populations
The ranking contains 19,471 active whole incorporated places. It excludes eight separately labeled consolidated-government balance profiles, county/place parts and consolidated-city aggregates. A “city” ranking here also includes supported incorporated towns, villages and boroughs; legal names do not imply a universal population threshold.
The population of New York, New York is its whole-place total. A metropolitan area is a different unit with different boundaries and membership. Comparing a metro figure for one place with a city-proper figure for another would change this ranking's meaning. Census-designated places are also outside this incorporated-place universe.
Sources, calculation rules and downloadable results
Source: sub-est2025.csv, Census Population Estimates Program, Vintage 2025, variables POPESTIMATE2024 and POPESTIMATE2025. Density additionally uses 2025 Gazetteer ALAND joined by official code. The retained source snapshot is pep-2025-r1; calculations use unrounded values.
Population order uses the exact July 1, 2025 count. Equal unrounded metric values share a competition rank, and the following rank skips the tied positions. Display rounding can make different underlying values look identical; the table order uses the originals.
Export visible rows after filtering to preserve the displayed subset. Use complete dataset downloads for all observations, or population research tools for a longer comparison. A ranking is a dated descriptive result, not an official forecast. Publication vintages can revise earlier years; retain the release identifier with your research.
