What is the population of Recife?
Recife has a city population of 1,653,461. That is the population within the city's own boundary, not its wider metropolitan area. City population, GeoNames.
City profile · Brazil · South America
Recife
City population
1,653,461
#9
in Brazil
#1
in Pernambuco
#273
worldwide
-8.054, -34.881 · 1,658 km from Brasília
About Recife
At 0.8% of Brazil's population, this city of 1.65 million represents a substantial but not dominant share of the country's inhabitants. The ninth-largest city in Brazil, it anchors a cluster of closely spaced municipalities; four cities within 16 km of it exceed 100,000 residents, including Jaboatão dos Guararapes at 644,017 and Olinda at 364,717. Situated 1,658 km from Brasília, it ranks 273rd globally by city proper population.
This summary is AI-generated from the figures on this page. The figures themselves come from the sources cited beside each value.
Key Facts
Country
Region
Rank in region
#1of 126
Elevation
8 m
Approximate — modelled, not surveyed
Time zone
America/Recife
Coordinates
-8.054, -34.881
Record updated
2026-04-13
Entry edited, not measured
City population, GeoNames. GeoNames publishes no year for its population figures, so “record updated” is when the entry was last edited — not the date the population was measured. Elevation is modelled from a digital elevation model rather than surveyed, so it is approximate.
Nearby Cities
All 2,250 in BrazilClosest listed cities by great-circle distance from the city centre.
Compared with the World's Largest Cities
City-proper population against the fifteen largest cities in the dataset.
| Name | City population |
|---|---|
| Shanghai | 24.9M |
| Beijing | 19M |
| Shenzhen | 17.5M |
| Guangzhou | 16.1M |
| Kinshasa | 16M |
| Istanbul | 15.7M |
| Lagos | 15.4M |
| Ho Chi Minh City | 14M |
| Chengdu | 13.6M |
| Lahore | 13M |
| Mumbai | 12.7M |
| São Paulo | 12.4M |
| Mexico City | 12.3M |
| Karachi | 11.6M |
| Tianjin | 11.1M |
| Recife | 1.65M |
Recife Population FAQ
Where is Recife?
Recife is in Pernambuco, Brazil, 1,658 km from the capital, Brasília. Its coordinates are -8.054, -34.881.
How big is Recife compared with other cities in Brazil?
It is the 9th largest of the 2,250 cities of 15,000 or more listed in Brazil, holding 0.8% of the national population.