Topics
Adama, 
Ethiopia
584,854 people lived in Adama in 2025. It is the 937th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Ethiopia.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Adama's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Adama grew
Count 10 people in Adama in 1975 and the same count gives 86.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 897,969 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1995 and 2000.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Adama through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Adama in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ethiopia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Adama is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Ethiopia in 2025, 259 in all, led by Addis Ababa, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Adama covered 66 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 16 km² of it. That is 28 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.4 times its size, and its people are 8.7 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in Ethiopia
Its share of Ethiopia
Of every 1,000 people in Ethiopia in 2025, 4 lived in Adama, which is 584,854 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Ethiopia, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Adama's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 933 Yenagoa Nigeria586,393
- 934 Zaragoza Spain585,533
- 935 Loudi China585,521
- 936 Cangzhou China585,507
- 937 Adama584,854
- 938 Ujjain India583,405
- 939 Madalla Nigeria583,367
- 940 Oujda Morocco583,116
- 941 Bunia Democratic Republic of the Congo582,792
In Ethiopia, 2025
- 59 Addis Ababa6,705,705
- 937 Adama584,854
- 1107 Bahir Dar498,735
- 1146 Dire Dawa483,674
- 1230 Shashamane452,945
- 1250 Hawassa444,909
- 1257 Bishoftu442,776
- 1327 Jijiga422,225
- 1448 Gonder392,767
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Adama 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 Adama 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