Population

The population is estimated at 471,104 (as of April 2008), the fourth largest in the prefecture next to Chiba City, Funabashi City, and Matsudo City. The number of household is about 213,000, ranking third behind Chiba City and Funabashi City. Chronologically, during the period from 1945 until the early part of 1955, the population was growing by about 10,000 persons annually, but slowed down since then. However, in recent years, the population has been moving gradually towards a level direction. The population pyramid shows the biggest number of population for those in the range of 30 to 34 years old.

 

The city's land area is 56.39 km² and the population density is approximately 8,300 persons per km².