Topics
Calabar, 
Nigeria
673,427 people lived in Calabar in 2025. It is the 807th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 28th largest in Nigeria.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Calabar 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 Calabar grew
Where Calabar had 10 people in 1975, it had 33.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 902,843 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1985 and 1990.
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
Calabar through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Calabar in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Nigeria · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Nigeria and its 457 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Lagos). Calabar 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, Calabar covered 100 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 27 km² of it. That is 40 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.1 times its size, and its people are 3.3 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 Nigeria
Its share of Nigeria
Of every 1,000 people in Nigeria in 2025, 3 lived in Calabar, which is 673,427 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Nigeria, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Calabar's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 803 Shangqiu China676,590
- 804 Bazhong City China675,756
- 805 Barcelona Venezuela674,757
- 806 Sha Tin Hong Kong674,476
- 807 Calabar673,427
- 808 Jiamusi China673,406
- 809 Likasi Democratic Republic of the Congo673,034
- 810 Kudus Indonesia671,940
- 811 Veracruz Mexico668,350
In Nigeria, 2025
- 668 Oyo793,241
- 705 Yola758,153
- 753 Zaria712,688
- 766 Akure700,747
- 807 Calabar673,427
- 841 Bauchi642,082
- 862 Lokoja629,547
- 911 Ado Ekiti598,230
- 916 Ogale595,099
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 Calabar 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 Calabar 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