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Cities with the largest foreign populations

Dubai, United Arab Emirates has the highest foreign residents of the 30 cities compared: 3,362,800 people (Dubai Data and Statistics Establishment (DSC), 2023-12-31).

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Published city records ranked by the official number of foreign residents; definitions remain source-specific.

Items compared
30
Countries represented
15
Last checked
2026-09-26

Source-backed answers

Compare each answer with its unit and checked date; the complete source ledger is below.

Showing all 30 rows

Original rankCity or placePublished valueSource and scope
1Dubai, United Arab Emirates3,362,800 people2026-08-03
Source Scope: city · Period: 2023-12-31
2New York, United States3,106,219 people2026-08-03
Source Scope: city · Period: 2024-12-31
3Melbourne, Australia1,742,431 people2026-09-26
Source Scope: city · Period: 2021-12-31
4Los Angeles, United States1,377,410 people2026-09-19
Source Scope: city · Period: 2020-12-31
5Queens, United States1,099,420 people2026-09-17
Source Scope: city · Period: 2023-12-31
6Berlin, Germany994,590 people2026-05-28
Source Scope: city · Period: 2025-12-31
7Tokyo, Japan783,701 people2026-09-17
Source Scope: city · Period: 2026-01-01
8Perth, Australia757,036 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2021-08-10
9Vienna, Austria751,778 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2026-01-01
10Houston, United States683,104 people2026-09-19
Source Scope: city · Period: 2020-12-31
11Brisbane, Australia676,222 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2021-08-10
12Sharjah, United Arab Emirates655,301 people2026-08-03
Source Scope: city · Period: 2005-12-31
13Madrid, Spain619,086 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2024-01-01
14Chicago, United States566,883 people2026-09-19
Source Scope: city · Period: 2020-12-31
15Amsterdam, Netherlands562,270 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2025-01-01
16Toronto, Canada477,230 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2021-05-11
17Barcelona, Spain414,063 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2024-01-01
18Munich, Germany403,149 people2026-07-26
Source Scope: city · Period: 2022-05-15
19Hamburg, Germany387,845 people2026-05-28
Source Scope: city · Period: 2025-12-31
20Rotterdam, Netherlands385,206 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2025-01-01
21Adelaide, Australia379,952 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2021-08-10
22Rome, Italy355,837 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2026-01-01
23Prague, Czechia354,323 people2026-07-18
Source Scope: city · Period: 2024-12-31
24's-Gravenhage, Netherlands344,814 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2025-01-01
25Paris, France315,554 people2026-07-18
Source Scope: city · Period: 2023-01-01
26Birmingham, United Kingdom301,520 people2026-09-17
Source Scope: city · Period: 2021-12-31
27Montreal, Canada288,660 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2021-05-11
28Seoul, South Korea275,049 people2026-07-22
Source Scope: city · Period: 2026-03-31
29Milano, Italy267,986 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2026-01-01
30Oslo, Norway254,830 people2026-07-15
Source Scope: city · Period: 2026-01-01

What the numbers say

  • Dubai, United Arab Emirates leads at 3,362,800 people.
  • Oslo, Norway sits at the other end with 254,830 people.
  • The middle of this ranking is 562,270 people, across 30 places that publish the metric.
  • The spread between first and last is 3,107,970 people.

Quick answer

What does Cities with the largest foreign populations show?

Dubai, United Arab Emirates has the highest foreign residents of the 30 cities compared: 3,362,800 people (Dubai Data and Statistics Establishment (DSC), 2023-12-31).

How this list is built

Every row is a published foreign residents observation measured in people, ranked highest first. The values were observed between 2005 and 2026. A place appears only when it publishes this exact metric, so an absent place means missing data rather than a low value. Only published cities with at least 20,000 residents and city-level observations qualify.

  • Compare the displayed value, unit, source date and geographic grain together.
  • A city label does not change a regional observation into a city measurement.
Rows
30 places
Geographic grain
city
Observation period
2005-12-31 to 2026-03-31
Last checked
2026-09-26
With an official source link
30 of 30

Cite this page

Open a format to select or copy this ImmigrationDB compilation citation. The native disclosure and text fallback work without JavaScript.

APA citation
ImmigrationDB. (2026, October 16). Cities with the largest foreign populations [ImmigrationDB compilation; version 7b7745acd25a987382f028e470cc03ee]. ImmigrationDB. https://immigrationdb.com/reports/cities-with-largest-foreign-populations/ Retrieved 2026-10-16. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
BibTeX citation
@misc{immigrationdb_immigrationdb_cities-with-the-largest-foreign-populations_487607a0da8c,
  author = {ImmigrationDB},
  title = {Cities with the largest foreign populations},
  publisher = {ImmigrationDB},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-10-16},
  version = {7b7745acd25a987382f028e470cc03ee},
  url = {https://immigrationdb.com/reports/cities-with-largest-foreign-populations/},
  note = {Retrieved 2026-10-16. ImmigrationDB compilation. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/},
}
Markdown citation
[Cities with the largest foreign populations](https://immigrationdb.com/reports/cities-with-largest-foreign-populations/) — ImmigrationDB; ImmigrationDB; version 7b7745acd25a987382f028e470cc03ee; retrieved 2026-10-16; built 2026-10-16.

This citation identifies the ImmigrationDB compilation/page. Underlying source publishers and datasets retain their own terms; inspect the Sources section and cite those records separately. View the underlying source records.

Sources

  1. Dubai Data and Statistics Establishment (DSC)Dubai Data and Statistics Establishment (DSC) · Checked 2026-08-03
  2. Census Reporter (underlying U.S. Census ACS)Census Reporter (underlying U.S. Census ACS) · Checked 2026-08-03
  3. 2021 Census General Community Profile DataPacks — Significant Urban Areas, AustraliaAustralian Bureau of Statistics · Checked 2026-09-26
  4. ACS 2020-2024 5-year table-based Summary File, table B05002 (Place of Birth by Nativity and Citizenship Status), place recordsUS Census Bureau · Checked 2026-09-19
  5. Census Reporter API — ACS table B05002 (U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey)U.S. Census Bureau via Census Reporter (official republication) · Checked 2026-09-17
  6. Destatis — foreign population by Land and yearsDestatis · Checked 2026-05-28
  7. 東京都 — 外国人人口（各年1月1日現在）時系列 (TMG Statistics Division open data)Tokyo Metropolitan Government (東京都総務局統計部) · Checked 2026-09-17
  8. Bevölkerung am 01.01.2026 nach Staatsangehörigkeit und administrativen GebietseinheitenStatistik Austria · Checked 2026-07-15
  9. Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC)Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC) · Checked 2026-08-03
  10. Official INE municipal population by country of nationality; foreign total derived as Total nationality minus España.INE · Checked 2026-07-15
Show 2 more sources
  1. CBS Kerncijfers wijken en buurten 2025, municipality-grain passenger-car universe (Personenauto's totaal) divided by the same-table municipality population.CBS · Checked 2026-07-15
  2. Statistics Canada Census Profile 2021 characteristic 1512: not Canadian citizens, population in private households, 25% sample data, at CSD grain. This is the exact foreign-citizenship interpretation used for foreign population total; it is not immigrant status.Statistics Canada · Checked 2026-07-15