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Cities · Republic of the Congo · capital
Brazzaville, 
Republic of the Congo
3,656,322 people lived in Brazzaville in 2025. It is the 126th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in the Republic of the Congo, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Brazzaville 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 Brazzaville grew
For every 10 people in Brazzaville in 1975, there were 64.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 5.7 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes five million people between 2040 and 2045.
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
Brazzaville through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Brazzaville in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Republic of the Congo · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: the Republic of the Congo and its 4 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Brazzaville 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, Brazzaville covered 276 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 77 km² of it. That is 21 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.2 times its size, and its people are 6.5 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 the Republic of the Congo
Its share of the Republic of the Congo
Of every 100 people in the Republic of the Congo in 2025, 56 lived in Brazzaville, which is 3.7 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in the Republic of the Congo, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Brazzaville's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 122 Ürümqi China3,755,144
- 123 Ibadan Nigeria3,720,721
- 124 Recife Brazil3,691,196
- 125 Chicago United States3,683,385
- 126 Brazzaville3,656,322
- 127 Melbourne Australia3,639,893
- 128 Qingdao China3,616,657
- 129 Ankara Türkiye3,612,251
- 130 Kasaï-Oriental Democratic Republic of the Congo3,605,738
In the Republic of the Congo, 2025
- 126 Brazzaville3,656,322
- 294 Pointe-Noire1,662,537
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 Brazzaville 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 Brazzaville 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