Place profile
Also known as: Shanghai Municipality
Area, population and population density of Shanghai, with reference dates, geographic scope, official sources and an outline preview.
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Calculated from the population and area above; their reference dates may differ.
The closest rung on the Taiwan reference ladder; see the sources below.
The inverse of population density, from the same area and population figures.
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Shanghai Municipality, the whole province-level city: all 16 districts, including the islands of Chongming, Changxing and Hengsha in the Yangtze estuary. Area is the 6,340.5 km² land area published by the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau for year-end 2017, the most recent total it publishes; the population is the Bureau’s 24,854,100 permanent residents at year-end 2025 (15,109,100 with local household registration and 9,745,000 from elsewhere). Because the two figures are eight years apart and Shanghai’s shoreline keeps growing through reclamation and estuary deposition, the density is an approximation. “Permanent residents” (常住人口) counts people living in Shanghai for six months or more — a different definition from Taiwan’s household registration. The outline is Natural Earth’s Shanghai feature, which measures about 6,746 km² (+6.4%), within the gap this site accepts for coastal outlines; sizes on the page come from the official area, not from the drawing.
Average administrative density does not describe population distribution in every neighborhood. Compare population definitions and reference dates alongside the numbers.
Place guide
Shanghai Municipality covers 6,340.5 km² of land and had 24,854,100 permanent residents at year-end 2025, about 3,920 people per km². That is slightly more people than all of Taiwan, living on less than a fifth of Taiwan’s land.
Shanghai is one of China’s four province-level municipalities, so “Shanghai” here means all 16 districts, not just the dense core around the Huangpu River. The territory runs from the inland water towns in the west to the Yangtze estuary, where it takes in three islands: Chongming, which the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau describes as China’s third-largest island, plus Changxing and Hengsha.
The land area is the Statistics Bureau’s 6,340.5 km² for year-end 2017, which is still the total it publishes; the population is its 24,854,100 permanent residents at year-end 2025. Shanghai’s shoreline keeps moving outward through land reclamation and estuary deposition, so a current survey would probably show somewhat more land and a slightly lower density. Treat the density on this page as an approximation, not a like-for-like ratio.
“Permanent residents” (常住人口) counts people who have lived in Shanghai for six months or more: 15,109,100 hold local household registration and 9,745,000 come from elsewhere. That is a different definition from the household-registration counts used for Taiwan on this site, which record where people are registered rather than where they live.
The outline is Natural Earth’s Shanghai feature, which measures about 6,746 km², 6.4% above the official 2017 figure — consistent with the newer, larger coastline, and within the gap this site already accepts for coastal outlines such as Macao and Singapore. Sizes and ratios on this site are always calculated from the official area, never from the drawing.
Questions people ask
Shanghai covers 6,340.5 km² (reference date 2017-12-31). On the Taiwan reference ladder: ≈ 2.15 × Kaohsiung City.
24.9 million — 24,854,100 as of 2025-12-31. The scope of that count is set out under “Scope and definitions” on this page.
About 3,919.9 people per km², derived from the area and population above, whose reference dates may differ. An administrative average does not describe how crowded any particular neighbourhood is.
Shanghai Municipality, the whole province-level city: all 16 districts, including the islands of Chongming, Changxing and Hengsha in the Yangtze estuary. Area is the 6,340.5 km² land area published by the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau for year-end 2017, the most recent total it publishes; the population is the Bureau’s 24,854,100 permanent residents at year-end 2025 (15,109,100 with local household registration and 9,745,000 from elsewhere). Because the two figures are eight years apart and Shanghai’s shoreline keeps growing through reclamation and estuary deposition, the density is an approximation. “Permanent residents” (常住人口) counts people living in Shanghai for six months or more — a different definition from Taiwan’s household registration. The outline is Natural Earth’s Shanghai feature, which measures about 6,746 km² (+6.4%), within the gap this site accepts for coastal outlines; sizes on the page come from the official area, not from the drawing.
Also written or known as Shanghai Municipality. Every one of those names refers to the place measured on this page.
Outline source: Natural Earth · Public domain
Read the methodology and data notes