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Bukoba, 
Tanzania
173,889 people lived in Bukoba in 2025. It is the 3485th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 16th largest in Tanzania.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Bukoba grew
Where Bukoba had 10 people in 1985, it had 30.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 437,450 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2030 and 2035. The UN first counts it as a city in 1985, 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
Bukoba through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Bukoba in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Tanzania · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 45 cities in Tanzania in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Dar es Salaam. The ringed dot in colour is Bukoba; 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, Bukoba covered 33 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 5.4 km² of it. That is 31 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 2.3 times its size, and its people are 3.1 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 Tanzania
Its share of Tanzania
Of every 1,000 people in Tanzania in 2025, 2 lived in Bukoba, which is 173,889 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Tanzania, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Bukoba's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 3433 Hayfan Yemen176,151
- 3434 Layyah Pakistan176,125
- 3451 Pingtung City Taiwan175,377
- 3459 Kitenge Democratic Republic of the Congo174,943
- 3485 Bukoba173,889
- 3495 Ebolowa Cameroon173,565
- 3513 Gujar Khan Pakistan172,682
- 3525 Luau Angola172,177
- 3528 Anlong Veng Cambodia172,053
In Tanzania, 2025
- 2959 Iringa201,525
- 3014 Tabora198,557
- 3121 Musoma192,622
- 3311 Sumbawanga181,940
- 3485 Bukoba173,889
- 3670 Geita165,000
- 3768 Kahama160,713
- 3895 Katoro155,625
- 4771 Mtwara128,086
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 Bukoba are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1985 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 Bukoba 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