Kota Kinabalu has a population of 500,421, making it the 18th largest place we list in Malaysia. It is in Sabah.
Kota Kinabalu holds 1.4% of Malaysia's 36,385,115 people. Kuala Lumpur, the largest place we list there, is 2.9 times its size. Twenty years earlier the World Gazetteer recorded 457,326, a rise of 9%.
The 2005 figure comes from the World Gazetteer archive restored on this site. The two sources may draw the settlement's boundary differently, so treat the change as indicative rather than exact. Why figures differ.
Nearby in size
| Place | Region | Population |
|---|---|---|
| Selayang Baru Utara | Selangor | 542,409 |
| Pasir Gudang | Johor | 534,659 |
| Mukim Pulai | Johor | 505,661 |
| Kampung Larkin Lama | Johor | 500,000 |
| Kota Damansara | Selangor | 500,000 |
| Sandakan | Sabah | 439,050 |
Figures are the latest available in GeoNames (CC BY 4.0), which draws on national censuses of varying dates — treat them as recent, not same-year. Country totals are UN World Population Prospects 2024 (medium variant) where the UN lists the country separately; the handful it reports under a parent state keep a GeoNames figure and are marked as such. Sources & method.