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Bulawayo, 
Zimbabwe
492,771 people lived in Bulawayo in 2025. It is the 1130th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Zimbabwe.
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 Bulawayo'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 Bulawayo grew
Count 10 people in Bulawayo in 1975 and the same count gives 15.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 692,970 people in 2050.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Bulawayo through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Bulawayo in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Zimbabwe · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Zimbabwe and its 15 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Harare). Bulawayo 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, Bulawayo covered 173 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 35 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 2.3 times its size, and its people have grown by 57%.
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 Zimbabwe
Its share of Zimbabwe
Of every 100 people in Zimbabwe in 2025, 3 lived in Bulawayo, which is 492,771 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Zimbabwe, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Bulawayo's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1126 Hapur India493,837
- 1127 Aswan Egypt493,753
- 1128 Hardoi India493,665
- 1129 Dezhou China493,272
- 1130 Bulawayo492,771
- 1131 Ife Nigeria492,000
- 1132 Al-Kut Iraq491,247
- 1133 Cusco Peru490,968
- 1134 Quebec Canada490,451
In Zimbabwe, 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 Bulawayo 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 Bulawayo 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