The most important milestones of »City Population« since 1998 – click on image for more information
In February 1998, the website was launched as »Cities in the Country«.
It included population statistics for few countries and already a list of all urban agglomerations with a population of 1 million or more.
Since its beginning, the basic concept of the website is an interactive integration of population statistics and maps.
A Java 1.1 applet running embedded in an HTML frame was initially used as a simple map viewer.
The website was renamed into »City Population«. Since that year, the site is using the domain www.citypopulation.de.
In 2000, »City Population« offered population statistics of cities and administrative divisions for more than 100 countries.
The map viewer was complemented by a chart viewer applet written in Java 2.
It allowed visualizing population size, portion, change and development of selected places by column, pie and line charts.
A new map viewer shows the map in a separate window.
Implemented as Java 2 applet, it enhanced functionality and improved the visualization quality.
The list of countries is complete: Liberia, Montserrat, Myanmar, Somalia and Vatican City were added as last missing countries.
»City Population« counted half a million page visits per month.
»World by Map« was launched for world statistics with the domain world.bymap.org.
At its start, it covered 29 topics from the fields of demography, economy, energy, land area, telecommunication and transportation.
In addition to offline-generated HTML pages, dynamically computed pages for divisions with a potentially large number of places were established.
These pages use Google Maps for visualization. The labeling of places in Google Maps started in 2014.
An obvious re-design happened: a light-grey page background replaced the blue background. Only the logo retained its original background color.
Before and afterwards, the strategy is a continuous, incremental modification of the website design.
»City Population« presents news (especially page updates) on Facebook and on Twitter.
Both social networks are also communication channels in addition to traditional e-mails.
First dynamically computed pages for divisions of countries and cites were added.
These pages use also Google Maps for visualization. The optional labeling of areas in Google Maps started in 2017.
Tablet computers and smartphones are supported by special design and functionality.
In case of smartphones, no embedded maps are used. Instead, place maps are depicted on demand in a separate window. In addition, simplified charts are provided.
Because of increasing security problems of Java applets, their replacement had to be advanced: A new map viewer based on JavaScript and OpenLayers 2 was launched.
Following the original development schedule, a viewer based on OpenLayers 3 replaced it in 2015.
Also because of increasing security problems of Java applets, a new chart viewer based on JavaScript and Google Charts started.
Like the Java applet, it allows visualizing population size, portion, change and development of selected places by column, pie and line charts.
The site search was improved: The results of an own (complete and up-to-date) database search and of a Google site search, which is more input-tolerant, are listed.
In addition, input fields provide autocomplete functionality. Selection and ordering of items depend on population size.
»Top 10 Cities« with the domain www.top10cities.net was launched as complementing portal.
Furthermore, that website serves for testing new web technologies before using them by »City Population«.
In addition to the population development of the last years, latest available population details like gender, age, country of birth, nationality etc. can be visualized in maps and are tabulated and charted for user-selected places and divisions.
Further information from other services complements presented items:
For many places, WikiData information like description, coat, image, inception, elevation, website, etc. is shown if available.
For any place, a user can request current weather and a forecast from OpenWeatherMap.
First features for personalization are provided:
The setting page allows selecting measures, the map viewer and preferred languages.
For division maps, the user can specify a topic for visualization, e.g. the portion of Catholics in Belfast.
The map presentation on smartphones is revised.
The visualisation provides almost the same functionality as on desktop and tablet computers.
A user can show and hide the map on demand.
»City Population« celebrates its 25th anniversary.
In February 2023, the website provides 1.6m population totals and 7.3m population details for over 500,000 places & divisions.
The number of page visits is over 1m per month.