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Bamenda, 
Cameroon
394,155 people lived in Bamenda in 2025. It is the 1442nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 5th largest in Cameroon.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Bamenda's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Bamenda grew
For every 10 people in Bamenda in 1975, there were 28.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 507,393 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1995 and 2000.
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
Bamenda through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Bamenda in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Cameroon · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Cameroon and its 44 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Yaoundé). Bamenda 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, Bamenda covered 82 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 20 km² of it. That is 50 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.9 times its size, and its people are 2.8 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in Cameroon
Its share of Cameroon
Of every 100 people in Cameroon in 2025, 1 lived in Bamenda, which is 394,155 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Cameroon; the coloured squares live in Bamenda. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1438 Sonipat India394,583
- 1439 Pegu Myanmar394,446
- 1440 Danzhou City China394,343
- 1441 Mahesana India394,304
- 1442 Bamenda394,155
- 1443 As Samawah Iraq393,865
- 1444 Ezhou China393,658
- 1445 Morena India393,553
- 1446 Kadapa India393,513
In Cameroon, 2025
- 79 Yaoundé5,106,087
- 109 Douala4,104,516
- 797 Garoua678,769
- 1052 Maroua526,702
- 1442 Bamenda394,155
- 1658 Ngaoundéré345,148
- 1745 Kumba329,340
- 1789 Bafoussam321,489
- 2389 Kousseri244,247
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 Bamenda 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 Bamenda 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