SEOUL (Yonhap) -- More than 3 million people are estimated to be living in North Korea's capital city of Pyongyang, a research report said Saturday.



A total of 3.06 million people are living in the capital city as of this year, an increase of 7 percent from two years ago, the U.S.-based consulting firm, Demographia, said in its report on the world's urban areas published in May.



According to the firm's 2012 report, Pyongyang was home to 2.86 million people. It is unclear whether this is the first time that the city's population has surpassed 3 million.



Pyongyang's land area measures 176 square kilometers and the capital has a population density of 17,400 people per square kilometer, ranking it 142nd out of the world's 863 cities in terms of population scale and 34th in density, according to the report.



The eastern city of Hamhung was found to be the communist country's second-largest city in terms of population with 750,000 people and the northeastern city of Chongjin came in third with 650,000.