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Accra, 
Ghana
5,592,780 people lived in Accra in 2025. It is the 71st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Ghana, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Accra governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Accra grew
Count 10 people in Accra in 1975 and the same count gives 65.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 7.2 million people in 2050. It passed five million people between 2015 and 2020.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Accra through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Accra in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ghana · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Ghana and its 58 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Accra is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Accra covered 1,119 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 358 km² of it. That is 64 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.5 times its size, and its people are 6.5 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in Ghana
Its share of Ghana
Of every 100 people in Ghana in 2025, 16 lived in Accra, which is 5.6 million people.
How to read this: shrink Ghana to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Accra; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 67 Shenyang China5,702,638
- 68 Kabul Afghanistan5,635,737
- 69 Onitsha Nigeria5,627,706
- 70 Yangon Myanmar5,618,303
- 71 Accra5,592,780
- 72 Madrid Spain5,583,601
- 73 Faisalabad Pakistan5,566,382
- 74 Toronto Canada5,494,431
- 75 Mashhad Iran5,398,248
In Ghana, 2025
- 71 Accra5,592,780
- 98 Kumasi4,297,984
- 457 Sekondi-Takoradi1,127,436
- 830 Tamale654,868
- 2066 Cape Coast281,579
- 2364 Koforidua246,770
- 2371 Obuasi245,920
- 2405 Ho243,211
How to read this: the number before each name is its place among all 12,138 cities in the world in 2025; bars are people, on one scale per list. Only cities that reach 300,000 people have a page here, so a gap in the numbers is a smaller city.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Accra are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1975 to 2025, then projection to 2050. Projected years are drawn hatched, and the UN publishes no range of uncertainty for a city. What a city means here, how the UN measures one, and why that number can differ from the one Accra publishes about itself: how the figures here are put together.
Sources: UN WUP 2025 · Natural Earth · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries