Topics
Blantyre, 
Malawi
909,289 people lived in Blantyre in 2025. It is the 567th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Malawi.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Blantyre 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 Blantyre grew
For every 10 people in Blantyre in 1980, there were 156.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.3 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2030 and 2035. 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
Blantyre through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Blantyre in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Malawi · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Malawi and its 8 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Lilongwe). Blantyre 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, Blantyre covered 190 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 37 km² of it. That is 40 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 19.3 times its size, and its people are 15.6 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 Malawi
Its share of Malawi
Of every 100 people in Malawi in 2025, 4 lived in Blantyre, which is 909,289 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Malawi; the coloured squares live in Blantyre. 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
- 563 Jerusalem Israel920,478
- 564 Xuchang China916,553
- 565 Ikorodu Nigeria916,166
- 566 Shiraz Iran914,496
- 567 Blantyre909,289
- 568 Weifang China908,584
- 569 Sulaymaniyah Iraq907,815
- 570 Dusseldorf Germany907,386
- 571 Tbilisi Georgia906,746
In Malawi, 2025
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 Blantyre 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 Blantyre 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