How many people live in Cyprus, and where

How many people live in Cyprus sounds like a simple question, and it isn’t quite. The official statistics, from CYSTAT, only cover the south and west, the part the Republic governs, because the north has been out of its hands since 1974. Here are the official figures, where they come from and what’s known about the rest, to go alongside my Cyprus travel guide. How the territory splits up is in the districts of Cyprus.

Nearly a million, and growing

The latest figure is 996,600 residents at the end of 2025, still provisional, according to CYSTAT’s home page. A year earlier, at the end of 2024, there were 983,000, up 1.7% on the 966,400 of 2023. CYSTAT explains this in its December 2025 release and makes clear that everything refers to the government-controlled area.

The last census, on 1 October 2021, counted 923,381 people, 615,603 in urban areas and 307,778 in rural ones. Compare the two and the Republic has gained more than 70,000 people in four years, and not just through births. In 2024 there were 9,766 births and 6,753 deaths, and net migration was 13,588. The EU, using Eurostat data, gives a slightly lower figure for 2025, and I’d stick with CYSTAT’s, as the national source.

Where do people live?

Mostly in Nicosia. At the end of 2024 the capital’s district counted 369,400 people, ahead of Limassol (280,300), Larnaca (165,500), Paphos (108,900) and the controlled part of Famagusta (58,900). Kyrenia doesn’t appear, because it lies entirely in the north.

By town, Nicosia’s urban area came to 269,900 when 2024 closed. As a single municipality in the 2021 census, the largest was Limassol with 107,970, ahead of Nicosia municipality with 56,479, because the capital is split between several. I compare the rest in towns and villages in Cyprus. At the other extreme are mountain villages with a few dozen residents, such as Fikardou, which had 25.

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And the north?

The Republic has no official statistics here. The Spanish foreign ministry says figures for that area are always approximations given the lack of reliable data, and estimates around 350,000 people, about 80,000 of them in north Nicosia. I give that as an estimate, not a statistic.

To understand where the division comes from you have to go back. The UN records that in 1960, when the Republic was born, roughly 80% of the population was Greek Cypriot and 18% Turkish Cypriot. Today the UN points to Pyla, within the buffer zone, as the one village still shared by both communities.

Who lives in the Republic

The 2021 census shows more than a headcount. By religion, CYSTAT counted 688,075 Orthodox Christians, 19,534 Muslims, 13,860 Roman Catholics, 9,621 Anglicans or Protestants and 4,486 Maronites, among other groups, and almost 160,000 people who gave no answer. The Spanish foreign ministry notes that Armenians, Maronites and Latin-rite Catholics are officially recognised, and each of those three groups elects a representative to the House, who can speak but not vote.

For visitors, that means a mainly Orthodox island, with Orthodox services every weekend and religious festivals shaping the calendar, such as Easter, which falls on 2 May in 2027. On the street, although the official languages are Greek and Turkish, you’ll hear a great deal of English, a legacy of the colonial period that ended in 1960, as I explain in languages in Cyprus. The figures for each faith are in religion in Cyprus.

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An ageing population, but only just

CYSTAT’s 2024 data show a country with low fertility, 1.4 children per woman, and high life expectancy, 81.4 years for men and 85.8 for women. Under-15s made up 15.2% and over-65s 18.3%. In other words, there are already more people over 65 than children, though not by much.

And one curious figure for British readers. The Sovereign Base Areas Administration puts the number of Cypriots living within Akrotiri and Dhekelia at around 10,000, alongside roughly 3,800 British military and civilian staff and dependants, as set out in the British bases in Cyprus. The village of Akrotiri alone had 931 residents in the 2021 census. The Spanish foreign ministry puts density at 106 people per km² in the Republic, and to compare the island’s size with places you know, see how big is Cyprus.

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Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Nicosia before prices climb.