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Addis Ababa, 
Ethiopia
Ādīs Ᾱbeba
6,705,705 people lived in Addis Ababa in 2025. It is the 59th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Ethiopia, where it is the capital.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
In its own language: Ādīs Ᾱbeba.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Addis Ababa grew
For every 10 people in Addis Ababa in 1975, there were 77.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 10.8 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes ten million people between 2040 and 2045.
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
Addis Ababa through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Addis Ababa in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ethiopia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 259 cities in Ethiopia in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Addis Ababa; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Addis Ababa covered 489 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 127 km² of it. That is 19 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.8 times its size, and its people are 7.7 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 100 people in Ethiopia in 2025, 5 lived in Addis Ababa, which is 6.7 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Ethiopia, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Addis Ababa's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 55 Pune India6,817,951
- 56 Khartoum Sudan6,809,355
- 57 Nanjing China6,800,676
- 58 Santiago Chile6,726,045
- 59 Addis Ababa6,705,705
- 60 Abidjan Côte d’Ivoire6,621,711
- 61 Chaozhou China6,407,770
- 62 Amman Jordan6,403,666
- 63 Baghdad Iraq6,390,735
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 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 Addis Ababa 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 Addis Ababa 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