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Arusha, 
Tanzania
795,744 people lived in Arusha in 2025. It is the 665th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in Tanzania.
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.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Arusha grew
For every 10 people in Arusha in 1985, there were 83.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.3 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2030 and 2035. The UN first counts it as a city in 1985, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Arusha through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Arusha in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Tanzania · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Arusha is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Tanzania in 2025, 45 in all, led by Dar es Salaam, 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, Arusha covered 185 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 38 km² of it. That is 48 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 5.5 times its size, and its people are 8.4 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 Tanzania
Its share of Tanzania
Of every 100 people in Tanzania in 2025, 1 lived in Arusha, which is 795,744 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Tanzania, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Arusha's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 661 Bilaspur India799,772
- 662 Kandahar Afghanistan799,015
- 663 Cuiabá Brazil798,772
- 664 Qinhuangdao China797,748
- 665 Arusha795,744
- 666 Chelyabinsk Russia794,411
- 667 Jincheng China794,234
- 668 Oyo Nigeria793,241
- 669 Irbid Jordan792,470
In Tanzania, 2025
- 42 Dar es Salaam7,795,114
- 538 Zanzibar City966,642
- 544 Mwanza954,104
- 665 Arusha795,744
- 1025 Mbeya539,248
- 1205 Morogoro461,634
- 1677 Kigoma340,483
- 1861 Moshi309,202
- 1956 Tanga296,202
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 Arusha are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1985 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 Arusha 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