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Asmara, 
Eritrea
228,270 people lived in Asmara in 2025. It is the 2575th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Eritrea, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Asmara governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Asmara grew
For every 10 people in Asmara in 1975, there were 12.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 297,733 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2000 and 2005.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Asmara through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Asmara in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Eritrea · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 10 cities in Eritrea in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Massawa. The ringed dot in colour is Asmara; 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, Asmara covered 42 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 11 km² of it. That is 46 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.5 times its size, and its people have grown by 25%.
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 Eritrea
Its share of Eritrea
Of every 100 people in Eritrea in 2025, 6 lived in Asmara, which is 228,270 people.
How to read this: shrink Eritrea to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Asmara; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 2566 Mollar Char Bangladesh228,869
- 2567 Masrakh India228,857
- 2571 Jega Nigeria228,584
- 2574 Puli Khumri Afghanistan228,271
- 2575 Asmara228,270
- 2576 Lalamusa Pakistan228,248
- 2578 Yei South Sudan228,087
- 2582 Binhai China227,533
- 2583 Petrozavodsk Russia227,487
In Eritrea, 2025
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 Asmara 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 Asmara 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