Topics
Centurion, 
South Africa
255,900 people lived in Centurion in 2025. It is the 2281st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 19th largest in South Africa.
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 Centurion'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 Centurion grew
Count 10 people in Centurion in 2000 and the same count gives 37.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 354,959 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2020 and 2025. The UN first counts it as a city in 2000, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Centurion through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Centurion in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
South Africa · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 95 cities in South Africa in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Johannesburg. The ringed dot in colour is Centurion; 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, Centurion covered 89 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 26 km² of it. That is 103 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 10 by 10 metres. Since 2000, its built-up land has grown to 2.6 times its size, and its people are 3.7 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in South Africa
Its share of South Africa
Of every 1,000 people in South Africa in 2025, 4 lived in Centurion, which is 255,900 people.
How to read this: shrink South Africa to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Centurion; 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
- 2276 Keren Eritrea256,896
- 2278 Ogu Nigeria256,345
- 2279 Kilwa Democratic Republic of the Congo256,165
- 2280 Abat Nigeria256,126
- 2281 Centurion255,900
- 2282 Wakayama Japan255,782
- 2283 Punto Fijo Venezuela255,662
- 2288 Skikda Algeria255,379
- 2289 Arkhangelsk Russia254,797
In South Africa, 2025
- 1986 Kanyamazane292,211
- 2148 Kimberley271,078
- 2249 Paarl259,665
- 2275 Vanderbijlpark257,093
- 2281 Centurion255,900
- 2445 Somerset West239,943
- 2675 Rustenburg220,723
- 2715 Botshabelo-N218,046
- 2827 Ennerdale210,428
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 Centurion are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 2000 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 Centurion 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