Topics
Asella, 
Ethiopia
215,594 people lived in Asella in 2025. It is the 2737th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 24th largest in Ethiopia.
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 Asella grew
For every 10 people in Asella in 1980, there were 39.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 320,267 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2030 and 2035. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, 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
Asella through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Asella 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 biggest being Addis Ababa. The ringed dot in colour is Asella; 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, Asella covered 25 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 5.9 km² of it. That is 27 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 4.2 times its size, and its people are 4 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, 2 lived in Asella, which is 215,594 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 Asella's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 2728 Bumba Democratic Republic of the Congo216,429
- 2730 Vientiane Laos216,305
- 2734 Kahemba Democratic Republic of the Congo215,825
- 2736 Kabongo Democratic Republic of the Congo215,612
- 2737 Asella215,594
- 2743 Elelim Indonesia215,216
- 2746 Manokwari Indonesia214,949
- 2752 Baraut India214,706
- 2762 Arifwala Pakistan214,409
In Ethiopia, 2025
- 2472 Bonsa Bota237,061
- 2610 Harar225,677
- 2612 Naqamte225,503
- 2661 Hossana221,895
- 2737 Asella215,594
- 2920 Alaba Kulito204,316
- 3568 Kefole169,474
- 3575 Aleta Wendo169,004
- 3695 Durame163,896
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 Asella are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 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 Asella 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