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Cities · South Africa · capital
Bloemfontein, 
South Africa
496,295 people lived in Bloemfontein in 2025. It is the 1115th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 10th largest in South Africa, where it is the capital.
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 Bloemfontein'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 Bloemfontein grew
For every 10 people in Bloemfontein in 1975, there were 27.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 678,064 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
Bloemfontein through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Bloemfontein in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
South Africa · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: South Africa and its 95 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Johannesburg). Bloemfontein 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, Bloemfontein covered 115 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 36 km² of it. That is 72 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 5.7 times its size, and its people are 2.7 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in South Africa
Its share of South Africa
Of every 1,000 people in South Africa in 2025, 8 lived in Bloemfontein, which is 496,295 people.
How to read this: shrink South Africa to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Bloemfontein; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1111 Vũng Tàu Vietnam498,010
- 1112 Balung Indonesia497,754
- 1113 Khamis Mushayt Saudi Arabia497,246
- 1114 Yangjiang China496,608
- 1115 Bloemfontein496,295
- 1116 Sousse Tunisia495,877
- 1117 Huludao China495,819
- 1118 Osh Kyrgyzstan495,400
- 1119 Baishan China495,030
In South Africa, 2025
- 398 Tembisa1,298,512
- 688 Evaton773,229
- 824 Gqeberha661,220
- 1056 Masetjhaba View522,402
- 1115 Bloemfontein496,295
- 1233 Polokwane451,786
- 1264 Chief Albert Luthuli Park441,204
- 1668 Edendale342,930
- 1986 Kanyamazane292,211
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 Bloemfontein 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 Bloemfontein 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