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Cities · Central African Republic · capital
Bangui, 
Central African Republic
1,056,949 people lived in Bangui in 2025. It is the 485th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in the Central African Republic, where it is the capital.
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 Bangui grew
Count 10 people in Bangui in 1975 and the same count gives 28.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.6 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2015 and 2020.
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
Bangui through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Bangui in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Central African Republic · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 6 cities in the Central African Republic in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Bangui; 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, Bangui covered 119 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 34 km² of it. That is 32 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 94%, 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 the Central African Republic
Its share of the Central African Republic
Of every 100 people in the Central African Republic in 2025, 19 lived in Bangui, which is 1.1 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in the Central African Republic, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Bangui's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 481 Astana Kazakhstan1,065,387
- 482 João Pessoa Brazil1,064,481
- 483 Honghuagang China1,062,992
- 484 Naha Japan1,060,017
- 485 Bangui1,056,949
- 486 Al Hillah Iraq1,055,267
- 487 Tshikapa Democratic Republic of the Congo1,054,686
- 488 Kutubdia Bangladesh1,053,339
- 489 Tuen Mun Hong Kong1,053,083
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 Bangui 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 Bangui 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