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Bujumbura, 
Burundi
1,246,960 people lived in Bujumbura in 2025. It is the 407th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Burundi, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Bujumbura 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 Bujumbura grew
Count 10 people in Bujumbura in 1975 and the same count gives 156.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.9 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2015 and 2020.
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
Bujumbura through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Bujumbura in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Burundi · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 12 cities in Burundi in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Bujumbura; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Bujumbura covered 148 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 36 km² of it. That is 29 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.5 times its size, and its people are 15.7 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 Burundi
Its share of Burundi
Of every 100 people in Burundi in 2025, 9 lived in Bujumbura, which is 1.2 million people.
How to read this: shrink Burundi to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Bujumbura; 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
- 403 Al-Najaf Iraq1,273,450
- 404 São Luís Brazil1,264,379
- 405 Herat Afghanistan1,259,425
- 406 Sendai Japan1,256,440
- 407 Bujumbura1,246,960
- 408 Tiruppur India1,242,837
- 409 Sylhet Bangladesh1,242,548
- 410 Montevideo Uruguay1,240,244
- 411 Tripoli Libya1,239,823
In Burundi, 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 Bujumbura 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 Bujumbura 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