Moscow has a population of approximately 13 million people as of 2025, making it the most populous city in Europe and the largest urban center in Russia. The wider metropolitan area, which spills into surrounding Moscow Oblast, is home to around 20 million residents, placing it among the largest urban agglomerations on Earth.
How Many People Live in Moscow?
The official, registered population of the city proper sits at roughly 13 million. However, the true figure is almost certainly higher. Large numbers of labour migrants and seasonal workers live in Moscow without formal registration, and some estimates put the de facto population at 15 to 17 million on any given day. This gap between registered and actual residents is a long-standing feature of the city and complicates census-taking.
By comparison, Moscow dwarfs every other European capital. It is roughly twice the size of London or Istanbul by city population and far ahead of Paris, Berlin, or Madrid. To find cities of comparable scale, you have to look to Asia and the megacities of China, India, and Japan. Moscow alone accounts for roughly one in eleven people living in Russia.
City Size and Density
Moscow covers about 2,511 square kilometres, a figure that nearly tripled in 2012 when the city annexed a large wedge of territory to the southwest, an area now known as "New Moscow." Before that expansion, the historic city was densely packed; the addition of these semi-rural lands lowered the overall average density to around 5,180 people per square kilometre.
That citywide average hides enormous variation. The historic core inside the Garden Ring is dominated by offices, ministries, and cultural landmarks, so relatively few people sleep there. The dense residential belts that surround the centre, by contrast, are packed with mid-rise and high-rise apartment blocks where the bulk of Muscovites actually live. The result is a city that empties out in the middle and fills up in concentric rings.
Administrative Districts
Moscow is divided into 12 administrative okrugs, which are further split into 125 smaller districts. The most populous okrugs are the residential giants on the city's edges:
- Southern Okrug — roughly 1.8 million residents, the largest by population.
- Eastern Okrug — about 1.5 million, a sprawling residential and industrial zone.
- South-Eastern Okrug — around 1.4 million people.
- Central Okrug — only about 780,000 residents despite containing the Kremlin and Red Square, because so much of it is given over to government and commercial use.
The newest district, Troitsky and Novomoskovsky, makes up the bulk of New Moscow. It holds roughly 600,000 people across a large, partly undeveloped area and is the city's main frontier for future housing.
Growth, Migration, and Demographics
Moscow's population has grown steadily for most of the past century, pausing only during the economic chaos of the 1990s that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Growth resumed firmly in the 2000s, and the city has added several million registered residents since 2002. The single biggest engine of this growth is internal migration: Moscow draws ambitious Russians from across the country with wages that average roughly double the national figure.
International migration matters too, especially from Central Asian states such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Ethnically, the population is predominantly Russian, at around 86 percent, but Moscow is far more diverse than the country as a whole. Sizeable communities of Tatars, Ukrainians, and peoples from the Caucasus and Central Asia give the city one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe, estimated at well over a million.
Muscovites are also notably well educated; a large share of adults hold higher-education degrees, among the highest rates of any major city in the world. The median age is around 40. While Russia overall faces demographic decline driven by low birth rates, Moscow's population is expected to stay broadly stable because steady in-migration offsets the shortfall in natural growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Moscow the biggest city in Europe?
Yes. With roughly 13 million residents in the city proper, Moscow is the most populous city in Europe by a wide margin, ahead of Istanbul, London, and every European Union capital.
What is the population of greater Moscow?
The Moscow metropolitan area, including the city and the surrounding parts of Moscow Oblast, is home to roughly 20 million people, making it one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world.
Why might Moscow's real population be higher than 13 million?
The 13 million figure counts officially registered residents. Many labour migrants and seasonal workers live in the city without registration, so the actual daytime population may reach 15 to 17 million.
How dense is Moscow?
The citywide average is about 5,180 people per square kilometre, but density is far higher in the residential rings around the centre and much lower in the newly annexed, semi-rural New Moscow districts to the southwest.
