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Chilanga, 
Zambia
133,860 people lived in Chilanga in 2025. It is the 4554th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 14th largest in Zambia.
Like every city on this site, Chilanga 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 Chilanga grew
Chilanga first appears on the UN's list in 2025, with 133,860 people.
On the UN's projection it will have 407,415 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2035 and 2040.
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
Chilanga through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Chilanga in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Zambia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Zambia and its 33 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Lusaka). Chilanga 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, Chilanga covered 43 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 5.7 km² of it. That is 43 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres.
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 Zambia
Its share of Zambia
Of every 1,000 people in Zambia in 2025, 6 lived in Chilanga, which is 133,860 people.
How to read this: shrink Zambia to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Chilanga; 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
- 4501 Luiza Democratic Republic of the Congo135,439
- 4522 Okposi Nigeria134,677
- 4537 Marawi Philippines134,181
- 4542 `Adan Barakah Yemen134,066
- 4554 Chilanga133,860
- 4569 Rajoir Bangladesh133,428
- 4637 Alipur Pakistan131,848
- 4657 Kayanza Burundi131,192
- 4681 Areka Ethiopia130,386
In Zambia, 2025
- 2177 Kabwe267,618
- 2517 Kasama233,587
- 2926 Livingstone203,972
- 4302 Kapiri Mposhi141,802
- 4554 Chilanga133,860
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 Chilanga are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 2025 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 Chilanga 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