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Cities · Democratic Republic of the Congo
Butembo, 
Democratic Republic of the Congo
454,857 people lived in Butembo in 2025. It is the 1224th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 16th largest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Like every city on this site, Butembo is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Butembo grew
Where Butembo had 10 people in 1975, it had 71.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 718,710 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2000 and 2005.
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
Butembo through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Butembo in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Democratic Republic of the Congo · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 223 cities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Kinshasa. The ringed dot in colour is Butembo; 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, Butembo covered 81 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 25 km² of it. That is 56 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.5 times its size, and its people are 7.1 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 Democratic Republic of the Congo
Its share of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Of every 1,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2025, 4 lived in Butembo, which is 454,857 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; the coloured squares live in Butembo. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1220 Cheboksary Russia456,304
- 1221 Raiganj India456,239
- 1222 Vladivostok Russia455,141
- 1223 Hafizabad Pakistan454,903
- 1224 Butembo454,857
- 1225 Sadiqabad Pakistan454,465
- 1226 Surrey Canada454,230
- 1227 Nantes France453,523
- 1228 Chimoio Mozambique453,521
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2025
- 809 Likasi673,034
- 941 Bunia582,792
- 1003 Kikwit549,102
- 1072 Manono517,304
- 1224 Butembo454,857
- 1244 Kolwezi446,709
- 1267 Gemena440,327
- 1291 Mbandaka432,976
- 1349 Uvira416,523
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 Butembo 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 Butembo 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