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Arua, 
Uganda
226,390 people lived in Arua in 2025. It is the 2599th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 6th largest in Uganda.
Like every city on this site, Arua is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Arua grew
Where Arua had 10 people in 1990, it had 42.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 409,439 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2025 and 2030. The UN first counts it as a city in 1990, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Arua through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Arua in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Uganda · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Uganda and its 27 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Kampala). Arua 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, Arua covered 50 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 9.1 km² of it. That is 40 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown to 4.6 times its size, and its people are 4.3 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in Uganda
Its share of Uganda
Of every 1,000 people in Uganda in 2025, 4 lived in Arua, which is 226,390 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Uganda, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Arua's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 2586 Hihya Egypt227,360
- 2589 Kazipur Bangladesh227,234
- 2592 Charikar Afghanistan227,054
- 2598 Bahawalnagar Pakistan226,415
- 2599 Arua226,390
- 2600 Maghagha Egypt226,358
- 2605 Sevastopol Ukraine226,028
- 2609 MohammadAbad-e Rigan Iran225,871
- 2610 Harar Ethiopia225,677
In Uganda, 2025
- 1495 Mbale City380,565
- 1657 Bukalasi345,288
- 2227 Jinja261,604
- 2536 Mbarara231,926
- 2599 Arua226,390
- 3035 Gulu197,090
- 3796 Masaka159,564
- 4221 Buligenyi144,692
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Arua are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 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 Arua 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