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Bishoftu, 
Ethiopia
442,776 people lived in Bishoftu in 2025. It is the 1257th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 7th largest in Ethiopia.
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 Bishoftu'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 Bishoftu grew
Where Bishoftu had 10 people in 1980, it had 73.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 973,855 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2010 and 2015. 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: 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
Bishoftu through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Bishoftu in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ethiopia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Ethiopia and its 259 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Addis Ababa). Bishoftu 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, Bishoftu covered 70 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 14 km² of it. That is 31 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 7.3 times its size, and its people are 7.4 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, 3 lived in Bishoftu, which is 442,776 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 Bishoftu's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1253 Bologna Italy443,849
- 1254 Abéché Chad443,793
- 1255 Thanjavur India443,736
- 1256 Irkutsk Russia442,807
- 1257 Bishoftu442,776
- 1258 Nizamabad India442,690
- 1259 Santa Marta Colombia442,455
- 1260 Blitar Indonesia442,219
- 1261 Anantapur India442,201
In Ethiopia, 2025
- 1107 Bahir Dar498,735
- 1146 Dire Dawa483,674
- 1230 Shashamane452,945
- 1250 Hawassa444,909
- 1257 Bishoftu442,776
- 1327 Jijiga422,225
- 1448 Gonder392,767
- 1583 Dilla360,925
- 1698 Jimma336,448
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 Bishoftu 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 Bishoftu 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