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Benguela, 
Angola
589,289 people lived in Benguela in 2025. It is the 926th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 8th largest in Angola.
Like every city on this site, Benguela is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Benguela grew
For every 10 people in Benguela in 1975, there were 50.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 665,201 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Benguela through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Benguela in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Angola · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Angola and its 57 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Luanda). Benguela 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, Benguela covered 96 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 19 km² of it. That is 33 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.6 times its size, and its people are 5 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 Angola
Its share of Angola
Of every 100 people in Angola in 2025, 2 lived in Benguela, which is 589,289 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Angola; the coloured squares live in Benguela. 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
- 922 Van Türkiye590,314
- 923 Darjeeling India590,052
- 924 Brahmapur India590,028
- 925 Weihai China589,850
- 926 Benguela589,289
- 927 Jalalabad Afghanistan587,508
- 928 Sagar India587,471
- 929 Ballari India587,340
- 930 Deoria India586,987
In Angola, 2025
- 532 Malanje973,086
- 752 Luena714,289
- 781 Cuito689,795
- 853 Huambo634,669
- 926 Benguela589,289
- 1077 Lobito516,153
- 1080 Saurimo514,728
- 1355 Moçâmedes415,361
- 1381 Uíge408,927
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 Benguela 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 Benguela 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